I'm Not a Goddess! I'm Human!
by RaeOUT
Summary: Egyptian mythology, Greek in later chapters. Mistaken identities, ancient love struck heros, Death, gods playing pranks and pranks on gods, Setia’s real problem isn’t how she’s going to get home but if she going to want to go home. Better summery within.
1. Introductions and a Fallen Temple

**S****ummery:**** mainly Egyptian mythology with Greek in later chapters. Setia is the daughter of historian Dr. Hector Ivans and his wife Indah. Setia was raised on the myths and legends of old but the ones she loves most are the stories of the ancient world who's ruins she's grown up in. Setia is with her father on an excavation when an accident sends her into the past where, contrary to modern belief, the gods **_**did**_** exist in the flesh. With mistaken identities, ancient love struck heros, Death, gods playing pranks and pranks on gods, Setia's real problem isn't **_**how**_** she's going to get home but if she **_**going to want**_** to go home.**

**PLEASE REVIEW!!! **Let me know what you think. I don't care if you totally trash it! Critique and criticisms are welcome. It helps me know what to fix and how well I've gotten the plot/story across if at all.

Chapter One

The Egyptian coast had begun to come into focus and though she'd seen it many times before, Setia kept her face pressed against the plane's small window.

"When will we go out to the dig site?" she asked without turning away from the window. When her father didn't answer she turned to ask him again, but sighed when she saw that he was once again engrossed in one of the many reports and documents Ammar had sent him on the progress of the tomb excavation while they had been in America.

"Dad!"

"Wha..." he muttered without looking in Setia's direction.

"Let your father be, sweetheart. You know how he gets when looking in on his true love." Indah said as leaned around her husband, pushing the documents in his hands to within inches of his nose, to look at their daughter. Setia began to laugh as her father remained oblivious to the movement and his wife's remark.

"Do you know when we're going out to the site Mother?"

"No, I'm afraid that I don't. Now give your father a smack for us both or we'll end up leaving him on the plane again after we land. I don't want him going on to Turkey like he did last time."

"I didn't make it all the way to Turkey," Dr. Ivans growled out as he looked up into the smiling face of his wife.

"Ahee! He lives!" Indah said with a wink to her daughter sending Setia into another fit of laughter.

"Finally! Dad, when are we going out to the dig site?"

"You act as if I've been neglecting you," Dr. Ivans grumbled looking up at his wife and daughter causing them both to laugh. Dr. Ivans sighed as he started to turn his attention back to his papers, but Indah snatched them from her husband before he could become fully absorbed into them again.

"You have dear. Now will you please answer your daughter's question! I'm tired of her pestering." Indah said with a laugh as she held the reports out of her husband's grasp. Dr. Ivans let out a huff and mumbled under his breath about wives undermining authority but turned to his daughter all the same.

"We don't need to go out to the excavation site for a few days, Setia. Give your mother and I couple days to settle in––"

"Dad, we live here. Its not like we're going to unpack anything but a couple of suit cases, we were only in the States to see Grandpa for the holidays. Please, please, _please_ can we––"

"You're sixteen years old don't beg," Dr. Ivans cut her off, "Setia we can't––"

"You'll go out with him tomorrow morning," Indah said as she smiled softly while ignoring her husband's glare, "Hector, I can see to the 'settling' of things without the aid of either of you. You and I both know that you were going to sneak off without her and go out tomorrow. And by those gods you study so much, I swear to _you _Hector, if you leave her and make me sit at home with her mopping around the house, _I will make you regret it_." Indah stated the last as leaned into her husband's face until the tips of their noses nearly touched while her husband tried to shrink back into his chair. Setia looked on in amazement as this exchange was all done in the little space her family had in their row on the plane.

"Yes, ma'am," Dr. Ivans replied back weakly. Indah nodded with a last look at her husband before turning a smiling face to their daughter.

"People are staring at you, Mother." Setia murmured with a smile to her mother and a nod to a man across the aisle.

"What? Why?" Indah asked as she looked around finally remembering that her family was seated on public plane. Indah blushed as smiled and nodded to the man before turning back to her family.

"Get your things together love. We should be landing soon." Indah said as she leaned down herself to gather her things, the blush still visible on her cheeks. Dr. Ivans pulled his reports and other documents together and had begun to file them in his briefcase.

"Dad, you do know that it would be ten times easier if you got a laptop to store all of those," Setia said as she watched her father put a report an inch thick into his briefcase. Dr. Ivans gave his daughter no reply and continued to put the rest of his file away before zipping up the case.

"Leave your father alone dear. Its not his fault he's old fashioned," Indah admonished her daughter though in such a manner as to indicate that she believed otherwise also. Dr. Ivans ignored them both and sat back in his seat as he waited for the plane to pull into the terminal. Setia laughed silently to herself shaking her head at her parents behavior. She'd long given up hope that they would grow out of it. There are somethings you just have to live with and parents are one of them. Setia finished gathering her things and followed her parents off. They walked through the airport and out to the loading zone were Ammar and his wife were waiting with their car.

"Uncle! Auntie!" Setia called out as she rushed into Fayruz's open arms. Fayruz laughed as she cradled Setia against her chest, Setia's head resting on her shoulder. Indah smiled at them as she helped Dr. Ivans and Ammar put their luggage in the car.

"How have you been Indah? I would greet you also however I believe your daughter has become glued," Fayruz said as she half dragged the still clinging Setia to the car.

"I noticed," Indah laughed out, "We are well. How are you and Ammar? How have things been while we were gone?"

"All is well, both with family and home," Fayruz answered as she pushed Setia into the car and climbed in behind her with Indah. Fayruz relayed various forms of gossip to Indah while Ammar discussed the progress of the excavation with Dr. Ivans. Setia zoned them out and watched as the city of her childhood passed by. Her family had moved to Cairo when she was seven to cut down on her father's travel costs. Dr. Ivans worked as a historian for several different clients around the world however his primary work was done in Egypt. Two of his clients were excavating a temple complex that had been found a few hours outside of Cairo. A recent sandstorm had just uncovered the lost complex.

Setia smiled to herself as she thought of heading out to the dig site. She loved the ancient world just as much, if not more so then her father did. Dr. Ivans had no real preference for which of the ancient cultures he preferred but Setia loved Egypt and its mysteries, with Greece in close second. Indah greatly blamed her husband for this. Dr. Ivans had, like any father, told his daughter bedtime stories. However, unlike most other fathers, he had told her tales of the Earth of old, of real princes, kings and princesses, of gods more numerous than the stars that walked among men and ancient fairy tale myths that linked heroic ancestors to the modern people.

Setia laughed quietly as she got out of the car, remembering back to one Christmas in the States when she'd given her cousin a black eye for saying it was impossible for Cinderella to have grown up in Egypt. How was a six year old Setia to have know that there was another Cinderella that had grown up in Europe. Dr. Ivans tried to saved her from a furious aunt when he argued that the Egyptians' version of Cinderella had been recorded roughly somewhere between 685-525 B.C. during the twenty-sixth dynasty and was most likely the first Cinderella story ever written, so clearly Setia was correct. Dr. Ivans had successfully diverted his sister-in-law's rage away from Setia but had also in turn, placed that anger upon himself.

"Setia stop daydreaming and get in here," Indah called out. Setia looked up to see that she was the only one in the driveway, everyone else had moved on into the house. Setia nodded as she walked up the steps and into the house. She headed up the stairs to her room. After spending half an hour putting her things away Setia went down to the kitchen to find her mother and Fayruz doubled over in silent laughter.

"What's going on?" she asked. The only reply her mother and Fayruz could give her was to point to the dinning room door that was slightly ajar. Setia walked over to the door and picked through the crack to find her father and Ammar arguing over something that had been found preserved at the excavation site and on whither or not it should be reported. Setia leaned in closer and tried to ignore the hysterical women behind her.

"Where not going to report it Ammar! Its obviously some sort of prank!" Dr. Ivans yelled as he glared at what was before him on the table. Setia craned her neck to see what her father was looking at but failed to see it.

"Its not a prank Hector! Its been dated four times for heavens sake!" Ammar yelled back. Ammar smiled slightly from where he stood beside her father's chair when he noticed Setia behind the door and motioned with a nod of his head for her to come in. She walked over to them and looked over her father's shoulder to see that they were going over pictures and documents of artifacts from the excavation. The picture in her father's hand however was the one that caught her attention.

"That looks like a laptop," Setia said as she leaned in closer to get a better look.

"It is a laptop. Yet it was found in a temple that hasn't been opened in hundreds of years! And dating on the stupid thing has it being place in the temple somewhere near the end of fourth dynasty! The tests had to have read it wrong Ammar!" her father growled out as he threw the picture in Ammar's direction. Setia began to laugh as he father's face started turning an even darker shade of red then it already was.

"What did you date it with? I mean how could you date it?" Setia asked.

"Every way we could though mostly with OSL.... optically stimulated luminescence," Ammar explained with another grin.

"Ah, yeah that whatsit electron dating, right? No don't try to explain it again Ammar. My sixteen year old mind can only wrap around the various ways of dating objects once or twice a year.... Does the dating say its real, I mean really real?" Setia asked.

"....Stupid prankers....Idiotic....Tricksters!" Dr. Ivans growled and mumbled out under his breath as glared in to space. Setia let out a laugh of her own at her father behavior.

"Dad, calm down! It has to be a prank so stop the drama. Can I see the picture Ammar?" Setia asked, while Ammar, grinning like a mad man behind her father's back, passed her the picture.

"Is it still at the excavation site or has it been moved to the museum?" she asked, raising the picture up to her nose as she studied it.

"All tests were done on site that could be," Ammar answered, the grin still on his face, "had we moved it off it would have been confiscated."

"We were given the funding to have that kind of tech on site? That's some expansive equipment," Setia set the picture down on the table and looked over to her father to see that he now had his head in his hands.

"Its not all that bad, you're over reacting," Setia sighed as she put a hand on her father's shoulder and shook him slightly.

"It is too," he growled back, "Sweetheart, you've no idea what this could mean. If this is real, it could rewrite our entire history."

Setia shook her head, smiling at how distraught her father was as she looked back to Ammar. The insane grin was _still_ on his face, his laughter barely contained. Ammar nodded to the kitchen door and Setia got the hint. She gave her father's shoulder one last squeeze before she turned and walked back into the kitchen. Her mother and Fayruz were still there with ludicrous grins that rivaled Ammar's on their faces. Setia grabbed an apple from the fruit basket on the counter before she leaned against the counter itself. She bit into it as she watched Fayruz and her mother laugh themselves into another round of hysterics.

"So is Ammar pulling one over on Dad?"

"I...I... believe so," her mother gasped out. Fayruz didn't say anything but her grin became more prominent as she smiled knowingly at Setia. Before Setia could ask Fayruz anything Ammar walked in. He tried to keep the emotion from his face but soon lost the battle and his own laughter joined his wife's and Indah's.

"I can hear you! You idiots!" Dr. Ivans yelled from the dinning room where he was still seated at the table. Setia's laughter joined the others at his outburst.

"So is it a joke?" Setia asked as she looked to Ammar.

"I'll tell you tomorrow at the dig site," Ammar answered when he could finally breathe again. Setia sighed as she moved away from the counter to throw her apple core away.

"I'm gonna go to bed," Setia said as she left the kitchen.

"Don't you want dinner, Love?" her mother managed to called back between gasps. Fayruz and Ammar had also tried to calm down and were attempting to console Dr. Ivans.

"Nah, I'm good. I'll see you in the morning," Setia yelled back as she walked up the stairs to her room. She walked into her room and locked the door behind herself. She pulled on an oversized tee-shirt and her favorite sweatpants before setting her alarm for four a.m. She flopped down on her bed and was soon fast asleep, dreaming of ancient kings, lost lands and forgotten gods.

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Setia was sitting at the kitchen table ready to go when her father came downstairs at five-fifteen the next morning.

"Breakfast is on the stove," she said as she smiled at Dr. Ivans. Her father merely opened and closed his mouth, his eyes bugging out. Ammar walked passed him to the stove and picked up a plate of eggs, bacon and toast.

"I told you it wouldn't work. It never does," Ammar smiled at Setia as he sat down across from her, "Hector, for the sake of heaven man, grab a plate and a seat. You look like a fish. And_you knew_ that it wouldn't work, stop acting so surprised."

"That's not the problem Ammar! Sweetheart your mother is going to kill you when she sees! And how can you act as if you don't see _that_ Ammar," Dr. Ivans bit out, gesturing wildly in Setia's direction. Setia smiled warmly at her father, acting as if all was well in the world with nothing out of the ordinary.

"You_ promised_ you mother you'd not dye your hair again after it washed out the first time," Dr. Ivans scolded.

"It washed out the first time cause it was dye that was meant to be washed out. I wanted to see if I liked it before I made it permanent," Setia explained.

"That's permanent?!"

"Yes. I obviously like it didn't I," she said with a smile as she lightly ran a hand through her long, dark chestnut hair that was now accented with vibrant, cherry red streaks.

"The only reason mother was angry was because Aunt Lily said I looked like a hooker," Setia explained, grinning from ear to ear when Ammar choked on his coffee, "the irony in that statement being the fact that her own daughter thinks a swimsuit counts as approved public clothing that she can wear twenty-four seven. Christmas in Virginia Beach and my dear cousin ran around the house in a bikini like it was a shirt."

"Chastity may have a few problems but doesn't give you right to be mean, Sweetheart. And thats beside the poin–"

"Mother said that I could when we got home away from Lily. Mother likes it too."

Dr. Ivans inspected his daughter's face closely to see if she was lying before he shook his head in defeat and grabbed a plate. Setia sat back in her chair as she watched her father grumble to himself about rebellious sixteen year olds and accursed sister-in-laws.

"Is her name truly Chastity? I don't remember you having such a niece," Ammar said as he too watched Dr. Ivans.

"Sadly, we're not on good terms. Lily does not like that I married a woman from Java. She and her daughter do not speak kindly of us, we don't speak of them at all, though I do talk to my brother on occasion. He doesn't seem to mind as much and will often apologize on his wife's behalf. Anyway... Lily named her daughter in the hope that she would be just as her name claims. Chaste and pure... of heart maybe. Just as Indah and I named that one, in the hope that she'd be true or faithful or both," Dr. Ivans replied as he gestured in his daughter's direction with his coffee mug. Ammar laughed quietly at this. Setia looked his way and raise an eyebrow in question but Ammar simply shook his head.

"I'll tell you later my Seti," he said a slight smile on his face.

"Don't let her mother hear you call her that. Indah will kill you."

"She has heard me say it before."

"Yes but mother didn't know what it meant before this last Christmas. Which is rather remarkable considering the fact that we live in Egypt and father talks of the old gods all the time. Lily explained it to her... Though in a context that wasn't needed."

" 'How fitting that _you_ would name your child, _Lord_ of _Chaos_,' " Dr. Ivans mimicked his sister-in-law so perfectly, from her tone of voice to her facial expression that for a moment Setia believed her Aunt Lily was in the room before she burst out into a fit of laughter.

"Indah doesn't like the fact that the nickname you've given our daughter means _Man_ of Set. I gave her the accurate meaning of the name later when I'd gotten her away from Lily. Indah had been ready to kill her. We can never have a peaceful Christmas at my father's when Lily joins in. Comes even when she's not invited, but then again how else will I see get to see Eric," Dr. Ivans replied, with a shrug of his shoulders. Ammar sat back in his chair grinning from ear to ear.

"It is the _man_ part that angers her most, not Set, God of the _Desert, Chaos and Destruction_?" Ammar and Dr. Ivans smiled at one another before they both burst out laughing. Setia sighed and got up from the table to put her dishes in the sink.

"Can we go now?" she asked as she turned back to them.

"Yes, yes, we can go. Coming Ammar?" Dr. Ivans asked as he also got up from the table, gathered the remaining dishes and placed them in the sink.

"Always, my friend. Someone has to keep this brat out of trouble," Ammar answered as he set his hand on top of Setia's head and ruffled her streaked hair. Setia tried to duck away but Ammar kept hold of her head as he moved behind her and pushed her out the front door. Setia climbed into the backseat and set her backpack on the floor as her father sat down behind the wheel. Ammar put a the few last minute items in the back and closed the tailgate before getting in himself.

"Wake me up when we get there," Setia said as she curled up on the back bench. Her father began to grumble to himself again while Ammar turned back to smile at her.

"Will do, Seti."

Setia yawned and stretched a little before she found a comfortable position and was soon fast asleep.

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"Setia. Setia, Sweetheart, wake up."

Setia squinted up at her father and rubbed her eyes as he gave her shoulder another shake. He smiled down at her before he turned to get out of the jeep. Setia sat up and squinted out the windows at the rolling sand dunes that surrounded the temple complex. She got out of the car and stretched before following after her father. The excavation team had cleared the front courtyards as much as possible but most of the complex was still buried in the sand. Beyond the courtyards, the halls and inner sanctuaries were very much intact. Against all odds the walls and ceilings had remained whole and unbroken, keeping the sand away. The temple complex that her father and his team was excavating was by far the most preserved anyone had ever seen. It's ceilings looked as if the had just been set into place, not a single stone tile had sifted or fallen down and much of the paint also remained. The walls too, were in good condition, though the passage of time could still be seen, they looked as if they'd only stood for a few hundred years not the forty-five thousand that the carbon dating had said they were. Setia wondered through the massive, beautiful halls before she found the room that her father and Ammar were in.

"Can I see the laptop?" she asked as she walked up to them.

"Its being tested on again you'll have to wait," her father answered, "why don't you go up on the dunes and take some more pictures of the dig site for me. The sun will be up soon, if you take a few pictures then, they should be beautiful. You did bring you camera didn't you?" Dr. Ivans asked looking up from the paperwork in his hands.

"Always Dad," Setia replied before she gave her father a kiss on the cheek and turned back the way she'd come. Setia walked out of the temple complex and slowly began to climb the high dunes. She got to the top out of breath and set her hand on her knees, doubled over. She stood up and looked around her at the rolling dunes. She walked along the sandy ridge above the the excavation site as she tried to find a position that would give her the best shot as the sun rose. She looked through the sight on her camera and noticed movement out of the corner of her eye. She turned her head to look only to see the tip of a tail disappear down the other side of the dune. Whatever it was it was headed towards where the back of the complex would be. After a split second of hesitation Setia walked down the dune's ridge after it. She couldn't see it any more but it had left clear footprints in the sand. She crested the top of another dune and looked down into the little valley there between the sandy mounds to find that the footprints ended in the center of the valley thought there was no animal or creature in sight.

Setia walked and slid down to the little valley floor, glancing around her to see where the animal could have gone. Setia stood there a moment in the center of the little valley trying to think of what she should do next. A crack rang out from beneath her feet and she froze. She waited a moment but when nothing else happened she turned back to follow her own footsteps back to the temple site. She's gone three steps when the ground gave out beneath her. She screamed as she suddenly found herself buried up to her waist. She looked around herself franticly try to think of what she should do when again she again caught movement out of the corner of her eye.

"Ammar! Help me!" Setia screamed out. She started to reach for him but stopped cold when she saw the grin spread across his face. He raised his hand and waved at her, the grin still on his face as the ground gave way a second time. Setia screamed, then choked on the sand that filled her mouth as she was swallowed up. Her screams continued on in her mind when it found it no longer had a mouth to do so. Another booming crack resonated through the sand and Setia soon found that she was falling again.

She couldn't see through the sand under her eyelids nor could her tears wash the sand away they were so choked with it. She new that she was screaming yet she couldn't not hear it. Either her mouth was still stopped with sand or her ears were, though it was most likely both. She hit something hard, landing on her stomach. She moved her arms and legs frantically, trying to grab onto something as she slid down the slop of what she'd landed on. With nothing to take hold of she continued to slid, still silently screaming. The thing she'd landed on suddenly dropped away and she fell backwards, flailing about. She landed harder then she first had, this time hitting her head. The darkness swallowing her from behind.

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Sounds and light faded in and out around Setia as she tried to hold onto consciousness. When her mind was present she would try to make sense of what the they were but there was a continuous drumbeat that drowned out both sound and thought. At times Setia thought she'd heard voices and laughter through the beat but before she could truly grasp at them her mind would faded back into the pressing darkness. She tried to move when the thought would cross her fogged, vacant mind but could only manage to twitch or shiver when and if she moved at all. After what seemed an eternity to her the things around Setia slowly began to focus.

She could sense that she was on either a table or a very hard bed which didn't aid her agony much. There was a dull throb at the back of her head that pulsed with a heartbeat all its own and she soon realize that it was also the drumbeat that she'd been hearing. She guessed that she'd had to have been out for a few days from what little of her internal battle she could remember. She could hear the sound of laughter from her right but as things got clearer she realized it was the sound of falling water. On her left must have been a doorway for she could see the light of it through her eyelids at times. After a while voices also came from that direction. Though the sound did not hurt her much. Opening her eyes was another matter, for what little light that did come through her eyelids brought her searing pain and the throb at the back of her head would pulse with a greater strength.

"There has been no change Father. She has yet to move though her body jerks at times," a small voice spoke from her left. It took a moment for Setia's sluggish mind to comprehend that someone had spoken at all. She tried to concentrate on what was being said but the pulsing ache at the back of her head made it near impossible.

"How is the wound?"

"It is healing slowly, I've never had one that my waters do not work on. It is frustrating Father," a deep, bass chuckle came before the man's reply.

"You'll soon learn that things often choose to happen in their own time."

"Has the rest of the Greater Pesedjet made Seth aware that we know of his creation?" Pesedjet triggered something in Setia's memory but her mind refused to fully recall it with the state of pain she was in.

"They do not wish to alarm him if she does not wake though it was through no fault of their own that she is in such a state."

"Would he truly believe that they would do such a thing as this?"

"Yes," the man's reply was so firm and convicting that Setia flinched at the tone. The quieter voice sighed and moved closer to Setia's side. Setia heard the sound of water splashing before a small, wet hand was placed on her forehead. Setia wasn't sure if it was a girl or a boy that stood beside her but by the size of the cool hand, that was now against her throat, it had to be a child. Setia tried to move, to acknowledge that she knew they were there but still found it too painful to move. She tried to speak or at least make some form of sound but before she could manage anything a loud crash and a roar ripped out from someways away.

"Stay here, I'll–" the man didn't finish as another crash resonated outside, this time much closer. Setia became anxious as screams and yelling began to ring out as well. She cried out when the throb in her head intensified as the next crash echoed through her head making spots dance in the light behind her eyelids. The child took Setia's left hand in her own and held it tightly as Setia whimpered when the yelling reached the hall outside the room.

"Father should be back soon. All will be well," the child sounded more like they was trying reassure their own fears then Setia's. The yelling was coming from right outside the door now, the sound causing Setia pain but also cutting through it.

"How dare you! Who gave you the right to keep such a matter from me! I should have been told immediately! _You had no right_!" Setia moaned as the voice ripped through her aching head.

"How dare I! I am the _high on earth_! I am _your _Lord! And _you_! How dare you take creation into your own hands! _You_ had no right!" this screamed reply brought forth only low, guttural growls. The child beside Setia let out a whimper of their own at the sound.

"Give me what is mine! I know Seti is in there," the first speaker growled out. When Setia heard her nickname she cried out, praying against all hope that it would be her old friend. There was silence after her cry as those in the hall paused at the sound. Setia heard a number of people move into the room but while most stopped at the door, one continued on to stand beside Setia and the child.

"Seti, you should not have left the temple," the man whispered as he bent down and picked Setia up. She moaned as the movement jolted all of her senses.

"She is not complet–"

"You've done enough. I can manage the rest," the man said to the child as he walked out of the room with Setia cradled in his arms her head resting against his shoulder.

"SETH! Do not walk away from me!" Setia flinched at the sound smashed through her head. Seth ignored the other, walking on. He walked for sometime and at certain points Setia could feel the sun on her skin. He finally stopped and set Setia down on a soft bed. He sat down beside her and placed a hand on the back on her head, Setia gasped as her head seemed to catch fire both inside and out. Then all pain vanished completely as the darkness came rushing back.

"That should help you heal a little faster. See you when you wake up Setia," Seth kissed her forehead and tucked her into bed before he left.

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Setia woke sometime later and looked around her from were she lay on the bed. She rubbed her eyes as she sat up and yawned. The room she was in was square with highly decorated walls that were covered in life size painting of lotus flowers, reeds, palms, cranes, fish and all other wildlife that could be found along the Nile. Setia got up and stretched before she began to explore the room. She inspected the walls, admiring the artwork and noticed that there was little in the room save for the bed she'd been on that was in the corner on the right hand side of the back wall beneath a massive window that looked out at rolling dunes of the desert and a curtained doorway centered on the opposite wall. There were also four lamps suspended in each of the four corners of the room.

She walked out of the bedroom in to a vast pillared hall that had only three walls including the one she had just walked through. Only one of the other walls had doorway. There were beautiful hieroglyphs and paintings on each wall though these were depictions of the gods instead of the Nile wildlife like in the bedroom. Setia walked to were the fourth wall should have been to see that it was open to a walled courtyard with a pool filled with lilies and lotus in the center, the bright sun reflecting of the white plaster walls and glittering off the pool's surface. Setia turned back to the pillared hall to inspect the paintings on the walls.

The two doorways divided their walls into two panels making a total of four separate yet united effigies on the walls. Each depicted a god or goddess in a different setting, the first wall was of Nephthys, one on each panel save that one was standing in the desert and the other by the Nile. The second wall showed Anubis and his child Kebechet in one panel standing beside Ammit and a set of scales. The other panel was of Ra, Osiris and Horus standing in the stated order beneath the sun. The third wall was of a family though on closer inspection Setia realized that this wall was cut into four separate paintings that showed different times and stages in the life of the girl portrayed.

The first panel was on the left hand side of the wall and it showed woman and a red haired man sitting on what looked to be two thrones, a small girl with red stripped hair in the man's lap. The second panel, to the right of the first, portrayed the girl some years older playing in the Nile while her father and mother watched, in the third the girl was riding in a chariot beside her father and she looked to be in her preteens. The last panel was of the girl standing on her own. Her long, red stripped hair flowing down her back. The fourth was masterfully done, slightly larger then scale when compared to the others and it could easily be seen that the girl shown was on the verge of becoming a woman. There was a blend of childhood things behind the girl and those of an adult in front of her, like she was giving up her childish things in favor of those before her. Setia stared at the last panel totally inthralled.

"That's me...."

"Indeed, it is you," Setia spun at the sound, looking wildly around, her eyes stopping on a figure that was leaning against the depiction of Nephthys in the desert and screamed.


	2. Much Explained and an Escape Made

Chapter Two

Setia backed as fast as she could into the wall.

"I'm sorry Seti. I couldn't help it," the words came out aloud as if they'd been spoken though the mouth on the thing before her didn't move. It had the body of a man but its head looked like some monstrous cross between a horse and a dog's. Setia let out another scream as it began to walk across the room towards her.

"Come now Setia! You've seen the walls of every Egyptian city! You knew that we would not have human heads," it laughed as she eyes grew larger, "here is this better?"

Setia choked on her next scream as she tried to push herself through the wall. It covered her mouth with a hand as its head shifted into that of a human. It looked just like any other human, after the shift though its hair was an unnatural blood red. The face it took on was one that Setia had known all her life.

"Ammar?!"

"Hello my little Seti," he said with a small laugh as he now placed his hand upon her head and ruffled her hair.

"But how.... You.... This is a dream right?"

"I'm afraid not."

"But you.... Your head," she stammered.

"My head? What of yours Seti?"

"Ah.... Its.... What did you do?" she asked as she rubbed the back of her head feeling no pain at all at the touch.

"Given that you can move and can speak to some degree, I'd say that you're alright," he chuckled.

"You are Ammar, right?"

"Not here but I will be in time," he said with rather evil grin.

"Okay, explain..... Please?" she asked, her confusion clear.

"Come this way and I'll explain over lunch," he said as he turned and walked back across the room. Setia followed him from some ways back, studying him as he walked through the halls. He lead her out into another walled courtyard were a table was set up with a two small fowls on the center plate and a bowl beside it fill with all manner of fruit. He sat down on a stool by the table and indicated that Setia do the same. She sat down beside him rather hesitantly causing him to smile at her in reassurance.

"So...."

"So...." he mimicked.

"Are you really Ammar?"

"I will be in around four thousand years," he said a grin, "you're in the past Seti."

"I'd gathered that but how?"

"Who am I? What Egyptian god does the future know the least about? And has a head like the one I did?"

"Set, known as Seth as well, but what does that have to do with how I got here?"

"I am the god of chaos because I'm a little insane, or maybe its the other way around," he answered with another wide, evil grin, "I dress rather oddly at times, I occasionally answer a question before it is spoken, where I often am chaos soon follows because I am there to oversee it. I am a master of time and it is a master of me."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"I am remember all times at once Setia. Even now I remember your birth and myself holding you in my arms as you father passes your tiny body to me when he brought you home. I remember it as if it happened only yesterday yet it will not happen for thousands of years. I remember what is to come and what must be. I can change nothing. You have come here beyond millions of times before now though to _you _this is only your first time. I can remember the way time must be but I also can manipulate it... At times," he said with a laugh.

"So.... you brought me here?"

"As I always have."

"Okay.... but did I have to split my head open? I mean I did split it right?" she asked as she lifted a hand to the back of her head and felt nothing, no scar nor lump.

"Forgive me but you always do as a way of introduction to the others in the Greater Pesedjet," he replied rather grimly, "as I said somethings _must be_ and are therefore out of my control. I can remember _everything_ Setia. Your past, present and future are _my past_. And if I _think_ of changing _just one_, just one little thing, I can also remember what that change_ changed_ until its very end. I remember the course of this world even before the world itself has made the memory."

"I had to bash my brain out just as I had to come to the past because I always... _have_?"

"Yes."

"Oh.... Um.... I take it you can't tell me why."

"Correct, I am a god and even then it is not always enough. Your mind would destroy itself with even a trillionth of what mine goes through," he explained, "as I said I remember what will happen but I also remember what could happen, I remember all of the possibilities. Every possible future that changes on one's choice."

"Is there anything you don't remember?"

"I am the Memory for the Egyptians only, there are other gods and goddesses that are the Memory for others. Eros is the Memory of the Greeks, just as Kali is for the majority of what will be India."

"Is it only those that are said to be of chaos or destruction that are.... the Memory?"

"We are of chaos and destruction because we are seen there as it happens."

"So you're the god of chaos because you turn up before the destruction happens though you're really there to ensure that it goes the way its suppose too?"

"Yes, the problem is that others don't know that," he said with a small smile.

"Was the battle with Horus because it had to happen. You made your nephew hate you because you must just as you killed your brother because you had to?" Setia asked as politely as she could but was obviously uncomfortable in asking. She had grown up with a man that she loved and admired as a second father, who history said was a murderer. But then history is written by those who win and in all records no matter how they vary, Seth loses every time.

"Osiris knows what I am, as does Ra but they are the only ones. When the time comes I can not do it so Osiris cuts apart his own body to save me from doing so. As to the matter with Horus, that hate remains until his kingdom passes away when the Romans concur Egypt," though history claimed that Seth was often lied Setia believed him. It wasn't possible not to believe him. Especially when a man speaks that miserably of his family and with such regret. She did not like knowing that her friend and mentor was willingly condemning himself over and over again.

"Why am _I_ here?" Setia asked after a moments pause.

"I tell you time and again, I cannot tell you that Seti. To do so would change everything in its entirety. You will have to find that out on your own, I'm sorry," he said with a sad smile. Setia paused again before she tried to start the conversation back up.

"Where's Fayruz?"

"She is here in the city but that void will also remain for sometime," his voice was strong but the sadness was clear in his eyes.

"What! Why?! You and Auntie... Why–"

"What does history say of Anubis? The greater history I've told you. Recite it Setia, until the end as I taught you," he ordered, his mouth set in a grim line. Setia sighed as she often did when give this command but did as she was told.

"Anubis is the son of Osiris by Nephthys because she longed for him, her sister's husband. Though Isis did aid her sister, Nephthys in the seduction of Osiris for she pitied her sister's heartless marriage. Anubis was born ages before his half brother Horus and none faulted him for his birth. All understood Nephthys' plight and what she was trap within," what Setia recited was so beaten into her mind that thought for what the words were not needed for them to be said. After a moment she gasped as what she had recited sunk in with new meaning.

"No. _No_, she.... But.... " she said as she tried to fight back a wave of tears. "She didn't but the world must think she has as I must portray that I've forsaken her to that degree," the sadness finally braking through in his voice.

"What?! How can you live with such a thing! You know that Auntie is faithful yet you–" Ammar and Fayruz were like second parents to her. To know that they were divided like this hurt her as it would any child. And to know that Ammar, the man she lovingly called her Uncle was knowingly causing himself such pain was more then she could take.

"It must be Setia and you will not change it! The void will heal in time as it always does, _in time_" he said the last bitterly through clenched teeth.

"Does Anubis even know that he is your son and not the result of some fling with his uncle?" Setia growled out.

"No. I've denied that he is my son over and over again, but to him it will always be just this one time. What will only be a thousand years of denial to him has been a thousand eternities to me," Setia stared at her old friend before her, the tears streaming down her face until he reached across the table and wiped them away.

"Can you see why I can tell you nothing, my little Seti?" Setia only nodded in reply. She rubbed her own hands against her tear stained cheeks. She took a deep breath, then another to compose herself before she changed the subject.

"Why was everyone so angry? From what I can remember there was a lot of shouting about how you'd done something or other."

"Because of your unnatural stripped hair the other gods believe that I've created you by my own hand. Most are certain that I am your only parent and none save Ra are permitted to create another high god or goddess without the aid of another. They may if they have his permission however," he explained.

"Are you saying they think I'm a goddess?!"

"Yes, but you are still human. I've masked it as I always have so that the others cannot see," he said with a laugh. Setia smile to herself glad that the sadness was gone from his voice though it remained in his eyes.

"Oh... how long have I been here?"

"You've been asleep for a week, by the old Egyptian calendar, since your arrival here. You spent six days in the main temple and four here."

"Ten days! What about my parents?! The must be worried sic–"

"Everything is fine. They won't even know you've left their time. I can send you back to the exact moment you left."

"So.... I can stay as long as I like?" she asked, cocking her head to the side.

"No, only a week at a time. You will age no matter what time you're in. And I cannot age you back. Your body can only take so much. Although, in this instance I'll let you stay a few days longer."

"A week by the ten days of the Egyptian calendar or seven by the future one?"

"The seven," he laughed out. Setia frowned but knew she couldn't persuade him and his iron resolve. She never could and _her_ Fayruz wasn't here to change it for her. The we're silent again for a time before Setia's curiosity got the better of her.

"What did I hit my head on when I fell?"

"You fall through and land on the head of my statue then continue to fall as you slid off the nose. You split you head open on the knee. Anubis went to see why a dying soul was calling him from the throne room. When he found you, you had near bled to death in the lap of my statue. The rest of the Greater Pesedjet believe that another had found out about you existence and was laying my crime at my own feet so to speak."

"All because I was found on your statue? How big is this thing if my entire body fit in its lap?"

"The statues of the Greater Pesedjet are all in one room that is called the 'Throne Room' because the statues are all seated, its also the counsel room. The ceiling is forty feet high, the statues are thirty feet high and six across. You fell five feet from the ceiling on to the head then another five down onto the lap. The sand you were covered in didn't help either."

"Ah, kay. Wait a second.....You stood there laughing as I fell through the temple ceiling!" Setia yelled as she stood and punch him in the arm.

"I had too! I'm sorry, forgive me!" he laughed as he held off the sixteen year old lightweight. After a few more punches Setia collapsed down on her stool and rested her head on the table. She glared at him as he continued to laugh before her face blanked and she sat up.

"What am I suppose to call you? I can't call you Uncle or Ammar. And no offense but I don't think I should call you father, I'd have to given that everyone thinks you've created me. I might slip up when I get home."

"It needn't be father. That is to kind an image for my reputation as of now. It will be easier to call me Seth when I do not have this face," he said with a small smile, "which I believe that its time I change back."

Setia tried her best not to scream as she watched her mentor's face change into the creature's. It scared her even more to be this close after speaking to his human face then it had the the first time he'd shifted.

"What is it exactly?" she asked as she tried to keep her voice steady.

"It is the head of a sutekh."

"Isn't that just another one of your names?"

"Yes but I created these creatures to aid me in Memory. So why should they not be named for me?" he replied with a grin.

"I thought you said only Ra could create?"

"Only he can create gods without a partner. Sutekh are animals, they are not gods," Seth explained.

"So there are others then?" Seth replied by sending out a low whistle. Setia turned to the sound of nails clacking on the marble floor to see four of these sutekh walking across the courtyard.

"They can bend and manipulate time just as I can. They age how they choose, some are full grown within the minute of their birth, others chose to take longer. Some are born here and remain _forever _in_ this _time, repeating it. While others may choose to pass through it. The only fault I gave them is that they cannot remember more then a minute a head. They do not remember the future as I do," Seth clarified.

"But they do know what may change and what must stay the same for I've told them so. Which is why one of them will not only be your bodyguard but also your watcher and keeper to ensure that you change nothing. You can choose any of them. I thought it best that they were all female so you needn't worry about a male following you _everywhere_," he continued with a laugh.

"Understood," Setia answered with a roll of her eyes as she caught the hidden meaning in his words, "what's the name of the one in the center? The one with cinnamon colored fur...?"

"Ark, bow to your mistress," Seth commanded from his seat at the table's head. Ark bent her forelegs and inclined her head before she walked up to Setia. Setia reached out hesitantly and placed a hand on top of Ark's head. Ark nuzzled Setia's hand before setting her head in Setia's lap. Setia smile softly before looking back to Seth.

"It was one of these that lead me to my doom above the temple wasn't it?"

"Yes, it was Ark actually," he laughed at her choice in words.

"Oh....So how many days do I have left?"

"Two," Setia's head snapped up to Seth's face.

"Only two! But–"

"As I've said you can only remain in the past for a short amount of time. And as it is I'm already extending that time frame but only this once, given that you've been unconscious for most of your first stay," Setia sighed and muttered under her breath but accepted what she was told.

"Can I go out to the see the city?"

"No. There are some in the both Greater and Lesser Pesedjets that would harm you simply because they believe that I created you. Horus and Anubis for example."

"Horus I understand but why would Anubis?"

"Your existence causes his mother great pain in that she believes I have betrayed her. Not all of them are certain as to if you were created asexually or if I had a partner."

"But you didn't create me at all. All you've really done is train me in how to act and speak in the old ways..... You've been preparing me for the most of my life," Setia stated the last in awe as everything Ammar and his wife had ever taught her, had ever told her clicked in to place.

"Yes, little Seti. We have," he said with his wide grin, "Ark take her to the library would you. She has some of her studies to catch up on," Setia glowered at him and opened her mouth to retort but he continued on before she could, "did you study over the holidays while you where in America? I didn't think so. Now follow Ark, she'll take you were you need to go. Take a plate with you given that you've not eaten yet and Seti, _do not leave Ark_."

Setia nodded and muttered under her breath as she got up. She followed Ark through to the front of the house, studying the painted walls and eating from her plate as she walked. As they passed though the main entryway Setia stopped and stared at what little of the busy street she could see through the gate. She stood there some time watching the city outside and before she even had time to think about it she dropped her plate and ran to the gate, throwing it open and charging through it. Ark cried out in a mix of barks, yips and hisses from behind her. Because Setia had acted on impulse Ark hadn't had time to see her escape. Setia rushed into the crowd hoping that the press of people would help her lose her guard and after a time she did.


	3. Of Life and Children

Chapter Three

Setia took a hard look around, nervous that Ark would find her. When she felt that she was safe from being found, she turned and ran down the alley she was hiding in. Living in Cairo had its advantages when a young girl made the right friends. Setia had learned from some of the best pickpockets in Cairo although she was never as good as her any of childhood friends. Yet she'd always been able to get what she needed. Her parents had often made her go back to pay for what was taken but that was only when they found the few things she'd looted.

They didn't like that she was stealing yet Dr. Ivans and his wife hadn't minded when she brought the urchins into their home. Despite their influences on his daughter, Dr. Ivans had always made it clear that the street children were welcome in his home. Especially when a hot meal, warm bed and someone to care were needed, Ammar and Fayruz had also done the same. Fayruz had taken to calling every child that came through her door, Setia included, as her "Little'ns", her little ones. She love them as her own and they her.

Dr. Ivans and Ammar were two of the few that were never robbed in Cairo. It also helped at times to have trusted eyes and ears across the city and through them every city along the Nile. Setia paused in the alley and looked down at herself. Her clothes had been change while she'd been asleep but her hair had be left to hang untouched or adorned. The red streaks were going to cause a number of stares and she knew that it would only be a matter of time that she was reported back to Seth.... Ammar.... Setia shook her head still having trouble wrapping her mind around it all.

"I might as well enjoy this crazy dream while I can," she murmured softly to the empty alley, "but first things first..."

She laughed lightly as she tugged at her striped hair. She knew that outlandishness of her hair would make her too memorable, she needed some way to hide it. Setia finished walking through to the end the alley and stopped just outside of the market there, hiding in the shadows. The one thing that the friends had taught her that she was the best at was the art of becoming invisible, of becoming a shadow. But for that she had to get what was needed to become just another face in the crowd. She began to look for a stall that she could swipe cloth from.

Setia walked back behind the stalls hidden from view until she found her mark and began to memorize the woman's face, her stall and her actions as Setia herself hid in the shadows. When she was finally confident that she could manage the pull without getting caught she made her way to the stall from behind, still sticking close to the alley. She waited for the woman to help a costumer before Setia swiped the right sized remnant of cloth that she seen the woman set aside. Setia was on the other side of the alley when she heard the stall owner cry out. She felt a moment of guilt before she brushed it off, Setia could find her later to repay the woman once she'd gotten money from Seth. She stepped into the crowd with the simple, unadorned, solid blue cloth wrapped around her head and shoulders like she'd seen the other women wear.

Setia continued on wandering through the crowds, smiling and laughing to herself at the many sights and wonders of the ancient temple city. She walked to the edge of the city and turned back to the way she had come, so much of what she'd walked through would no longer exist in her time. The stones walls of the temple and its outer buildings would remain but the clay and mud walls of the markets and homes surrounding the temple complex would barely leave traces. The sands of the desert winds would eroded them near to nothing leaving only an sixth of the mud buildings and walls to make it into her time.

Setia sighed, smiling happily to herself. This was the world she'd only dreamed of and even then her wildest dreams didn't cover anything of what she'd actually seen. She'd seen all verities of wares in the many markets Setia had walked passed. There were people selling animals, foods and all other manner of things within the inner sanctum of the city. The ones closest to the temple were selling wares for sacrifices and offerings while the outer most markets were selling what was needed to pass through the desert beyond. Setia walked back into the throngs of people towards one of the more colorful markets she'd passed though it took her a while to find it again. The market was tucked back in an alley a few blocks away from the main complex. She walked through the alley looking at all the jewelry and adornments before Setia stopped dead at the sight before her.

She'd known that it was one of Egypt's greater trades, just as it was for all of the other countries of the old world yet it was still a shock. The alley had opened up onto the top of an amphitheater were there was at least fifty people or more were seated there. Some were seated on cushions with servants that carried fans and shades to protect their masters, while others were seated on the bare stone seats of the theater. But it wasn't the people of the audience that made Setia stop, it was what they were buying. Below on the floor of the amphitheater was a small stage were slaves being sold, children to be exact. Setia was too stunned to cry out or even cry at all as she watched the children get sold off to one person or another. She stood there at the top of the amphitheater watching the children as were sold off but also watching the buyers.

"The children looked so small.... What labor could they possibly do?" Setia murmured as she turned to walk back up the alley. There was nothing she could do and she knew it, it was a part of life here. She paused when she noticed that she was not the only one posed there at the top of the theater. A few yards from her stood a young girl who was watching the proceedings below with uncertain eyes. She was about six or seven with ostrich feathers mixed into her hair. She wore the attire of a child form a rich family yet she seemed to not have any form of guard save for a large dog. Though the dog was scary enough, it looked to be a domesticated jackal yet it was to large. It stood taller then the girl herself. The girl looked up when she felt Setia's eyes upon her. Setia nodded to her before she started to walk over to the girl. The dog began to growl but stopped and looked down to the girl when she patted its shoulder.

"What on earth are you doing in a place like this?" Setia asked the girl as she bent down to her level, looking once to the dog before turning back to the girl. The girl cocked her head to the side, her eyes widening as she stared at Setia as if _she_ was the one that should not be there.

"Well?"

"Who are you to question me?" the girl asked. Setia rocked back on her heels, shocked at the girl reply, before she narrowed her eyes and gave rather heated reply of her own.

"I am someone who doesn't like seeing one as small as you in a place like this," the girl's eyes widened again be for she answered abashed.

"Forgive me I should not have spoken so.... my Lady," the girl said with a slight bow to Setia before she took a step back. Setia reached out and place a hand on the girl's small shoulder and smiled slightly. She'd meant to reassure the girl but it seemed to only frighten her. Setia took her hand off of the girl's shoulder and held both of her hands up to show that she meant no offense.

"What are you here for?" Setia asked again. The girl looked even more uncertain but answered all the same.

"Father sent me to get a companion for myself," she whispered softly as she studied her feet, not to looking at Setia.

"Did he..." Setia replied, the disgust evident in her voice. The girl's head shot up not understanding Setia's reaction. Setia sighed before she looked back down at the auction block. A smile began to play at her lips before she turned back to the girl.

"Tell you what... You see the little girl there? The smallest one with her hair down loose to her waist, that isn't on the block just yet? You buy her and you'll get two companions for the price of one," Setia said with a wink to the girl.

"How?" she asked confused.

"I'll be the second companion... No, scratch that, I'll be your friend. Your true friend not one you have to buy," Setia prayed that the girl wouldn't realize that she wasn't currently being_true_. She didn't seem to notice.

"You swear it?"

"I swear it on my life," the girl paused before she nodded and turned back to the sales floor. She called to the slave master and payed for the little girl that Setia had pointed out. Setia cocked her head as she watched the master himself bring the little one up, when he'd refused to touch any of the children before that, letting _his_ slaves do the work. He bowed to the girl beside Setia before walking back down to the audition block. Setia looked around at the crowd as well, noticing that they were whispering to one another as they looked back at the girl beside her also. She shook it off not really caring before she turned to the girls.

"Lets go shall we?" Setia said as she took the hands of both girls and lead them back down the alley, the guard dog tagging along behind. She swung their hands a little as they walked before stopping at the mouth of the alley.

"So what are your names?" Setia asked as she looked between the girls. The slave girl looked about five years of age and refused to answer, choosing to stare at her feet instead. The other girl stared at Setia like she was insane.

"You do not know who I am?"

"Should I?" Setia asked confused.

"Ah.... no," Setia laughed at this before trying again.

"My name is Setia though my friends call me Seti," Setia smiled at the girls, giving their hands a little squeeze

"I'm not permitted to give out my name, most know it already. Only my family can speak my name... But you... Um... I could–" Setia stopped the older girl before she could finish.

"You don't have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable. If you really can't tell me its okay I guess that means we'll just have to give you one that I can use," Setia said with a smile as she looked down at the girl beside her, the girl's wide eyes staring back.

"We'll also have to see if we can get this little one to speak," the girl they'd boughten had yet to make a sound and had chosen to be lead along as she studied her feet. The older girl nodded in agreement as she too looked at the girl. Setia turned attention back to the other matter first.

"So would you like to pick a name for yourself or would you like me to give you one?" Setia asked turning back to the older girl. She looked up Setia and studied her a moment before finally answering.

"You can choose..."

"Okay... Lets see... Maybe Elain, naw... Maybe.... Hmmmm," Setia looked down at the girl watching her as she tried to think of a name. After a moment she smiled.

"Dai, no Dai Dai!" Setia finally laughed out, twirling the newly dubbed Dai Dai around by the hand Setia held.

"Day Day? Day as in daytime?" she asked quirking an eyebrow and looked up at Setia confused.

"It sounds the same but its spelt D, A, I. Its Welsh," Setia said with a happy smile as she gave Dai Dai another spin before she spun the other little girl.

"What is Welsh?" Dai Dai asked.

"Its a language from far to the north were its cold."

"Oh... What does it mean?"

"Dai means 'Beloved', twice means twice beloved," Setia replied with another laugh. Dai Dai looked up at her confused like she couldn't understand why someone would call her such a thing.

"What? Why can't I call my new little friend by such a name?" Setia smiled brushing off the young girl's confusion.

"Wait! You've been to the cold north! You've seen snow?!" Dai Dai cried out as she looked up at Setia with big eyes, utterly amazed.

"Its nothing big," Setia replied, again brushing it off yet not realizing Dai Dai's sudden developing case of hero worship, "now for our new friend's turn. What's your name?"

"Do slaves' have names?" Dai Dai asked. Setia sighed not wanting to give nor get into such a lesson.

"Everything and everyone has a name Love, what you are doesn't change that. Lets stop over here shall we," Setia pulled the girls over into a side alley and took a seat on the boxes there and patted the space beside her. Dai Dai jumped up beside her but the other girl stayed where she was. Setia sighed before she pulled the girl into her lap.

"Will you tell us your name or do we have to give you one too?" the little girl finally looked up but only for the fact that she'd suddenly found herself in Setia's lap. Setia pulled Dai Dai closer as we'll when she noticed her slight look of jealousy.

"We won't hurt you Little'n," Setia said with a smile that she hoped was reassuring. She paused a moment looking back and forth between Dai Dai and Setia before she answered.

"I have no name," Setia bit her lip remembering what she'd just told Dai Dai about everything having a name.

"Yes you do. Its just a matter of finding it, the correct one that fits," Setia said with a smile, glad she'd come up with something quick, "you see if you can find it Dai Dai. Look closely at our little friend. What do you see about her that strikes you the most?"

"Her eyes?" Dai Dai asked as she leaned towards the little girl, the child looking back before she lowered her eyes.

"Yes and?" Setia encouraged.

"Their as blue as the Nile," she replied with smile of her own, "that means your name is Anippe.... Right?"

"'Daughter of the Nile' fits perfectly but lets call her Annie for short, yeah?" Setia replied before giving both girls a squeeze.

"Yes... What does it mean? Is it Waleish too?"

"No, its not. Annie means 'Gracious'. What do you say Dai Dai, shall we get our little Annie some different clothes?" Setia said as she stood up still holding Annie but grabbing a hold of Dai Dai's hand and leading them back out into the market. Dai Dai nodded and let Setia lead her along. They walked on into one of the busier markets were the people were packed tighter then sardines. Setia had to hold Dai Dai to her side to keep the crowd from separating them, Dai Dai didn't mind as she too held tightly to Setia's skirts and hip. Setia pulled their little group aside to a small stall that looked like it was selling clothing instead of the just the cloth to make what was needed. But before they could get there they hear barking and growls from a ways behind them.

"We lost Jahi!" Dai Dai cried out.

"Ah shick! I forgot about the dog! Dai Dai don't move!" the barking was coming from farther behind them now as the crowds pushed them apart. Setia had tried to stop but it was impossible.

"Come on–"

"But Jahi is that way!" Dai Dai cried out as she tried to pull Setia towards the direction they had heard Jahi barking.

"We're going this way! If we can get to that statue of Nephthys I can push you up on top of it above the crowd!" Setia growled out as she dragged Dai Dai towards the statue, Annie still on her hip. It took a while to get to it, Dai Dai was sobbing with Annie trying to reassure her once that Setia had discovered that it was easier to kick people out of the way and was devoted to get the little group their destination in one piece.

"Enough Dai Dai! That isn't helping! Here, you and Annie get up there," Setia growled out as she pushed Annie up into the lap of the seated statue. Annie was to short to reach it however. Setia began to mutter various obscenities that she learned from Ammar, the girls eyes widened at some of them and they turned to look at one another before they both burst out laughing which only made Setia mutter and growl more. She dropped Annie and pressed her against the statue, holding her there with her knee to insure the crowds wouldn't sweep her away, the little girl only laughed more. Setia picked Dai Dai up and pushed her up onto the statue. It took a moment before she could but Dai Dai finally managed to scramble up onto the lap of the statue.

"Don't look for Jahi! Get Annie! She can help!" Setia growled out as she held the girl up. Dai Dai turned back and helped pull Annie up.

"Do you set him?" Setia called up to them.

"No..."

"Don't you dare cry! You lose your head and you may as well forget it! We'll just finish shopping and you can hope to high heaven that he finds his own way home!" Setia bit out but sighed when she saw Dai Dai's face.

"Look harder. Do either of you see him?" both girls shook their heads. Dai Dai and Annie looked out across the crowds. They stood there a while before Dai Dai cried out, clapping her hands.

"Jahi got my Father!... Father! Father over here! " Dai Dai called out as she jumped up and down, clapping her hands above her head. She turned to Annie and got her to jump as well. Setia turned and looked out across the crowds to where they were parting for someone as the person moved towards the statue. Dai Dai's father was about a hundred yards away when Setia caught a glimpse of him. She let out a gasp before she turned and ran into the crowd. She stopped some ways away and hid back behind a stall that had a clear view of the statue though she was to far to hear anything. Dai Dai's father had finally made it up the statue but Dai Dai and Annie were no longer looking at him. They looked panic stricken and were turning every which way looking for _her_ know that Jahi and Dai Dai's father had turned up.

"Sorry kiddo but today's not a good day to meet your dad," Setia murmured softly as she turned back to the crowd letting it swallow her. Had she watched a moment more she would have seen Dai Dai's father turn to her voice. He watched her go before he turned back to his daughter and the companion he'd sent her to buy, to help them down and take them home.


	4. Meeting the Family and Other Problems

Chapter Four

Setia took a hard look around, nervous that Ark would find her. When she felt that she was safe from being found, she turned and ran down the alley she was hiding in. Living in Cairo had its advantages when a young girl made the right friends. Setia had learned from some of the best pickpockets in Cairo although she was never as good as her any of childhood friends she'd always been able to get what she needed. Her parents had often made her go back to pay for what was taken but that was only when they found the few things she'd looted. They didn't like that she was stealing yet oddly, Dr. Ivans and his wife hadn't minded when she brought the urchins into their home. Despite their influences on his daughter, Dr. Ivans had always made it clear that the street children were welcome in his home. Especially when a hot meal, warm bed and someone to care were needed, Ammar and Fayruz had also done the same. Fayruz had taken to calling every child that came through her door, Setia included, as her "Little'ns", her little ones. She love them as her own and they her. Dr. Ivans and Ammar were two of the few that were never robbed in Cairo. It also helped at times to have trusted eyes and ears across the city and through them every city along the Nile. Setia paused in the alley and looked down at herself. Her clothes had been change while she'd been asleep but her hair had be left to hang untouched or adorned. The red streaks were going to cause a number of stares and she knew that it would only be a matter of time that she was reported back to Seth.... Ammar.... Setia shook her head still having trouble wrapping her mind around it all.

"I might as well enjoy this crazy dream while I can," she murmured softly to the empty alley, "but first things first..." She laughed lightly as she tugged at her striped hair. She knew that outlandishness of her hair would make her too memorable, she needed some way to hide it. Setia finished walking through to the end the alley and stopped just outside of the market there, hiding in the shadows. The one thing that the friends had taught her that she was the best at was the art of becoming invisible, of becoming a shadow. And for that she had to get what was needed to become just another face in the crowd. She began to look for a stall that she could swipe cloth. Setia walked back behind the stalls hidden from view until she found her mark and began to memorize the woman's face, her stall and her actions as Setia herself hid in the shadows. When she was finally confident that she could manage the pull without getting caught she made her way to the stall from behind, still sticking close to the alley. She waited for the woman to help a costumer before Setia swiped a remnant of cloth that she seen the woman set aside. Setia was on the other side of the alley, stepping into the crowd with the simple, unadorned, solid blue cloth wrapped around her head and shoulders like she'd seen the other women wear, when she heard the stall owner cry out. She felt a moment of guilt before she brushed it off, Setia could find her later to repay the woman once she'd gotten money from Seth, she's memorized the woman's face for that reason.

Setia continued on wandering through the crowds, smiling and laughing to herself at the many sights and wonders of the ancient temple city. She walked to the edge of the city and turned back to the way she had come, so much of what she'd walked through would no longer exist in her time. The stones walls of the temple and its outer buildings would remain but the clay and mud walls of the markets and homes surrounding the temple complex would barely leave traces. The sands of the desert winds would eroded them near to nothing leaving only an sixth of the mud buildings and walls to make it into her time.

Setia sighed, smiling happily to herself. This was the world she'd only dreamed of and even then her wildest dreams didn't cover anything of what she'd actually seen. She'd seen all verities of wares in the many markets Setia had walked passed. There were people selling monkeys, snakes, birds, cloth, grains, oils and other liquids within the inner sanctum of the city. The ones closest to the temple were selling wares for sacrifices and offerings while the outer most markets were selling what was needed to pass through the desert beyond. Horses and camels, mostly though there were other materials needed for a caravan as well. Setia walked back into the throngs of people towards one of the more colorful markets she'd passed though it took her a while to find it again. The market was tucked back in an alley a few blocks away from the main complex. She walked through the alley looking at all the jewelry and adornments before Setia stopped dead at the sight before her.

She'd known that it was one of Egypt's greater trades, just as it was for all of the other countries of the old world yet it was still a shock. The alley had opened up onto the top of an amphitheater were there was at least fifty people or more were seated there. Some were seated on cushions with servants that carried fans and shades to protect their masters, while others were seated on the bare stone seats of the theater. But it wasn't the people of the audience that made Setia stop, it was what they were buying. Below on the floor of the amphitheater was a small stage were slaves being sold, children to be exact. Setia was too stunned to cry out or even cry at all as she watched the children get sold off to one person or another. She stood there at the top of the amphitheater watching the children as were sold off but also watching the buyers.

"The children looked so small.... What labor could they possibly do?" Setia murmured as she turned to walk back up the alley. There was nothing she could do and she knew it, it was a part of life here. She paused when she noticed that she was not the only one posed there at the top of the theater. A few yards from her stood a young girl who was watching the proceedings below with uncertain eyes. She was about six or seven with ostrich feathers mixed into her hair. She wore the attire of a child form a rich family yet she seemed to not have any form of guard save for a large dog. Though the dog was scary enough, it looked to be a domesticated jackal yet it was to large. It stood taller then the girl herself. The girl looked up when she felt Setia's eyes upon her. Setia nodded to her before she started to walk over to the girl. The dog began to growl but stopped and looked down to the girl when she patted its shoulder.

"What on earth are you doing in a place like this?" Setia asked the girl as she bent down to her level, looking once to the dog before turning back to the girl. The girl cocked her head to the side, her eyes widening as she stared at Setia as if _she_ was the one that should not be there.

"Well?"

"Who are you to question me?" the girl asked. Setia rocked back on her heels, shocked at the girl reply, before she narrowed her eyes and gave rather heated reply of her own.

"I am someone who doesn't like seeing one as small as you in a place like this," the girl's eyes widened again be for she answered abashed.

"Forgive me I should not have spoken so.... my Lady," the girl said with a slight bow to Setia before she took a step back. Setia reached out and place a hand on the girl's small shoulder and smiled slightly. She'd meant to reassure the girl but it seemed to only frighten her. Setia took her hand off of the girl's shoulder and held both of her hands up to show that she meant no offense.

"What are you here for?" Setia asked again. The girl looked even more uncertain but answered all the same.

"Father sent me to get a companion for myself," she whispered softly as she studied her feet, not to looking at Setia.

"Did he..." Setia replied, the disgust evident in her voice. The girl's head shot up not understanding Setia's reaction. Setia sighed before she looked back down at the auction block. A smile began to play at her lips before she turned back to the girl.

"Tell you what... You see the little girl there? The smallest one with her hair down loose to her waist, that isn't on the block just yet? You buy her and you'll get two companions for the price of one," Setia said with a wink to the girl.

"How?" she asked confused.

"I'll be the second companion... No, scratch that, I'll be your friend. Your true friend not one you have to buy," Setia prayed that the girl wouldn't realize that she wasn't currently being _true_. She didn't seem to notice.

"You swear it?"

"I swear it on my life," the girl paused before she nodded and turned back to the sales floor. She called to the slave master and payed for the little girl that Setia had pointed out. Setia cocked her head as she watched the master himself bring the little one up, when he'd refused to touch any of the children before that, letting _his_ slaves do the work. He bowed to the girl beside Setia before walking back down to the audition block. Setia looked around at the crowd as well, noticing that they were whispering to one another as they looked back at the girl beside her also. She shook it off not really caring before she turned to the girls.

"Lets go shall we?" Setia said as she took the hands of both girls and lead them back down the alley, the guard dog tagging along behind. She swung their hands a little as they walked before stopping at the mouth of the alley.

"So what are your names?" Setia asked as she looked between the girls. The slave girl looked about five years of age and refused to answer, choosing to stare at her feet instead. The other girl stared at Setia like she was insane.

"You do not know who I am?"

"Should I?" Setia asked confused.

"Ah.... no," Setia laughed at this before trying again.

"My name is Setia though my friends call me Seti," Setia smiled at the girls, giving their hands a little squeeze

"I'm not permitted to give out my name, most know it already. Only my family can speak my name... But you... Um... I could–" Setia stopped the older girl before she could finish.

"You don't have to tell me if it makes you uncomfortable. If you really can't tell me its okay I guess that means we'll just have to give you one that I can use," Setia said with a smile as she looked down at the girl beside her, the girl's wide eyes staring back.

"We'll also have to see if we can get this little one to speak," the girl they'd boughten had yet to make a sound and had chosen to be lead along as she studied her feet. The older girl nodded in agreement as she too looked at the girl. Setia turned attention back to the other matter first.

"So would you like to pick a name for yourself or would you like me to give you one?" Setia asked turning back to the older girl. She looked up Setia and studied her a moment before finally answering.

"You can choose..."

"Okay... Lets see... Maybe Elain, naw... Maybe.... Hmmmm," Setia looked down at the girl watching her as she tried to think of a name. After a moment she smiled.

"Dai, no Dai Dai!" Setia finally laughed out, twirling the newly dubbed Dai Dai around by the hand Setia held.

"Day Day? Day as in daytime?" she asked quirking an eyebrow and looked up at Setia confused.

"It sounds the same but its spelt D, A, I. Its Welsh," Setia said with a happy smile as she gave Dai Dai another spin before she spun the other little girl.

"What is Welsh?" Dai Dai asked.

"Its a language from far to the north were its cold."

"Oh... What does it mean?"

"Dai means 'Beloved', twice means twice beloved," Setia replied with another laugh. Dai Dai looked up at her confused like she couldn't understand why someone would call her such a thing.

"What? Why can't I call my new little friend by such a name?" Setia smiled brushing off the young girl's confusion.

"Wait! You've been to the cold north! You've seen snow?!" Dai Dai cried out as she looked up at Setia with big eyes, utterly amazed.

"Its nothing big," Setia replied, again brushing it off yet not realizing Dai Dai's sudden developing case of hero worship, "now for our new friend's turn. What's your name?"

"Do slaves' have names?" Dai Dai asked. Setia sighed not wanting to give nor get into such a lesson.

"Everything and everyone has a name Love, what you are doesn't change that. Lets stop over here shall we," Setia pulled the girls over into a side alley and took a seat on the boxes there and patted the space beside her. Dai Dai jumped up beside her but the other girl stayed where she was. Setia sighed before she pulled the girl into her lap.

"Will you tell us your name or do we have to give you one too?" the little girl finally looked up but only for the fact that she'd suddenly found herself in Setia's lap. Setia pulled Dai Dai closer as we'll when she noticed her slight look of jealousy.

"We won't hurt you Little'n," Setia said with a smile that she hoped was reassuring. She paused a moment looking back and forth between Dai Dai and Setia before she answered.

"I have no name," Setia bit her lip remembering what she'd just told Dai Dai about everything having a name.

"Yes you do. Its just a matter of finding it, the correct one that fits," Setia said with a smile, glad she'd come up with something quick, "you see if you can find it Dai Dai. Look closely at our little friend. What do you see about her that strikes you the most?"

"Her eyes?" Dai Dai asked as she leaned towards the little girl, the child looking back before she lowered her eyes.

"Yes and?" Setia encouraged.

"Their as blue as the Nile," she replied with smile of her own, "that means your name is Anippe.... Right?"

"'Daughter of the Nile' fits perfectly but lets call her Annie for short, yeah?" Setia replied before giving both girls a squeeze.

"Yes... What does it mean? Is it Waleish too?"

"No, its not. Annie means 'Gracious'. What do you say Dai Dai, shall we get our little Annie some different clothes?" Setia said as she stood up still holding Annie but grabbing a hold of Dai Dai's hand and leading them back out into the market. Dai Dai nodded and let Setia lead her along. They walked on into one of the busier markets were the people were packed tighter then sardines. Setia had to hold Dai Dai to her side to keep the crowd from separating them, Dai Dai didn't mind as she too held tightly to Setia's skirts and hip. Setia pulled their little group aside to a small stall that looked like it was selling clothing instead of the just the cloth to make what was needed. But before they could get there they hear barking and growls from a ways behind them.

"We lost Jahi!" Dai Dai cried out.

"Ah shick! I forgot about the dog! Dai Dai don't move!" the barking was coming from farther behind them now as the crowds pushed them apart. Setia had tried to stop but it was impossible.

"Come on–"

"But Jahi is that way!" Dai Dai cried out as she tried to pull Setia towards the direction they had heard Jahi barking.

"We're going this way! If we can get to that statue of Nephthys I can push you up on top of it above the crowd!" Setia growled out as she dragged Dai Dai towards the statue, Annie still on her hip. It took a while to get to it, Dai Dai was sobbing with Annie trying to reassure her once that Setia had discovered that it was easier to kick people out of the way and was devoted to get the little group their destination in one piece.

"Enough Dai Dai! That isn't helping! Here, you and Annie get up there," Setia growled out as she pushed Annie up into the lap of the seated statue. Annie was to short to reach it however. Setia began to mutter various obscenities that she learned from Ammar, the girls eyes widened at some of them and they turned to look at one another before they both burst out laughing which only made Setia mutter and growl more. She dropped Annie and pressed her against the statue, holding her there with her knee to insure the crowds wouldn't sweep her away, the little girl only laughed more. Setia picked Dai Dai up and pushed her up onto the statue. It took a moment before she could but Dai Dai finally managed to scramble up onto the lap of the statue.

"Don't look for Jahi! Get Annie! She can help!" Setia growled out as she held the girl up. Dai Dai turned back and helped pull Annie up.

"Do you set him?" Setia called up to them.

"No..."

"Don't you dare cry! You lose your head and you may as well forget it! We'll just finish shopping and you can hope to high heaven that he finds his own way home!" Setia bit out but sighed when she saw Dai Dai's face.

"Look harder. Do either of you see him?" both girls shook their heads. Dai Dai and Annie looked out across the crowds. They stood there a while before Dai Dai cried out, clapping her hands.

"Jahi got my Father!... Father! Father over here! " Dai Dai called out as she jumped up and down, clapping her hands above her head. She turned to Annie and got her to jump as well. Setia turned and looked out across the crowds to where they were parting for someone as the person moved towards the statue. Dai Dai's father was about a hundred yards away when Setia caught a glimpse of him. She let out a gasp before she turned and ran into the crowd. She stopped some ways away and hid back behind a stall that had a clear view of the statue though she was to far to hear anything. Dai Dai's father had finally made it up the statue but Dai Dai and Annie were no longer looking at him. They looked panic stricken and were turning every which way looking for _her_ know that Jahi and Dai Dai's father had turned up.

"Sorry kiddo but today's not a good day to meet your dad," Setia murmured softly as she turned back to the crowd letting it swallow her. Had she watched a moment more she would have seen Dai Dai's father turn to her voice. He watched her go before he turned back to his daughter and the companion he'd sent her to buy, to help them down and take them home.


	5. More Lessons and Homeward Bound

Chapter Five

Setia sped away from Nephthys and began to run through the halls until she found a secluded courtyard. She ran in and dropped down in a corner behind three huge potted plants. Setia tucked her head between her bent knees to try and slow her hyperventilating. She let out a shaky laugh as she repositioned her head to rest it on top of her knees.

"Holy crap! Anubis is gonna eat me!" Setia gasped out.

"No, though he is thinking about it."

Setia clamped a hand over her mouth cutting her scream in half. A chuckle came from across the courtyard in reply.

"Come here Setia..." Setia trembling as she stood up but turned all the same to see an elderly man standing in an archway that she'd not noticed before.

"I'm sorry.... I thought I was... I didn't see–"

"It isn't here, the archway. Now come here... They're on their way."

Setia gave a start and ran towards the man, knocking one of the plants over in her rush. She turned back to try and catch it before the pot could brake but the old man took hold of the back of her dress, pulling her through. Setia stumbled slightly as she tried to regain her balance. She stood up straight and dusted herself slightly.

"Why is everyone manhandling me today!" Setia growled out under her breath.

"It won't be for much longer. Especially once they get to know you as yourself and not the daughter of Chaos," the old man chuckled softly as he walked down the dark hall they were in. Setia followed once she noticed that there is no other way to go. She glared at the wall were the archway had been, before sighing and shaking her head to follow the old man.

"Who are you... I know you..."

"Me? I'm Raymond. How could you forget me!" he said with a wink over his hunched shoulders at Setia.

"That crazy geezer who was friends with my grandfather! No you're not! He's dead! He–"

"Where are we time wise, huh, kiddo?."

"Oh yeah... Heh, um, so who are you? Here in this time, I mean."

"The Grandfather of All... the brats," he says with another smile as they walked out of the hall and into a bright oasis. Setia turned just in time to see the hallway wink out of existence.

"So the Great Egyptian God of Creation becomes the future's Crazy Man of Hamster Land?"

"Don't make fun of my hobbies, child... Weird, yes I know, but I like controlling their little world.... Yours too as a matter of fact," he said with an evil smile that made it easy to see where Seth had learn his from. Setia's half smiled in return.

"Your house was one big mess of tubes, balls and I don't know what else. How many did you have anyway?"

"During your childhood? Hmmm, well, at one point in time... one hundred, twenty seven and two halves I believe."

"Wha? Two halves!"

"Another cat got in the house and played with him.... He was my favorite, I couldn't let him die... It was rather entertaining watching both halves. The back half would walk upright on the its two little legs and waddle... The front would walk on its forepaws– "

"Which only adds to the 'you're crazy' bit," Setia laughed out, "that and slinging cats. Your springboards on your porch sprained a number of ankles when we took your things out for your grandson after you died."

"True but the stupid things would get into my house and go for my pets.... Lost a number of good hamsters to the cat raids," He said with a sorrowful shake of his head, "and I can recall the days you came to help when you were younger.... Used to love to pull the strings to throw the broads with your grandfather.... Have contests to see which cat would go the farthest... He built those spring broads you know...."

"_Raymond_, you're ranting," Setia said as she took a hold of his arm and shook him lightly. He laughed in reply, nodding his head.

"You're exactly like your grandfather... Your father too.... But Tor always put me back on track, he'd–"

"Yes, I know. Grandfather was the one that keep you in line... But thats beside the point! You're Ra! Or you should be! Why are you... odd?"

"The myth of Isis and my name, recite it!"

"Whhhhyyyyy! Ow! Okay, Okay... Isis steals the knowledge of your secret name making you an old man so you'd have to leave the Earth!" Setia rushed out, rubbing her arm where he'd pinched her.

"What was that!" he growled out, trying to pinch her arm again, "I know Seth didn't teach you that crap!"

"But I don't wanna!"

He glared at her and she glared back before they both burst out laughing.

"We could have gone on longer," Setia gasped between laughs.

"Yes, yes.... It did always make Tor laugh to watch our odd verbal battles. Where did Hamster Land come from?"

"You know, I don't have any idea..... Oh and sorry I killed you off. Its really all just improve at seeing you, I guess. But then isn't always? I had to come up with something to start our unusual way of accusing one another of oddities instead of saying hello like normal people.... You and Grandfather do it better though," Setia answered with a smile.

"The spring boarding cats came from that too, I suppose?"

"Yeah and you didn't have to pinch me–"

"Yes I did, Setia. Eye for an eye, tooth for tooth and _bruise for bruise_," he said with a crooked smile as he jabbed her in the shoulder with a gnarled finger, "and _you_ bruised my grandson!"

"I wha?.... I did not need to know that Raymond!"

"But you _did_ bruise my poor Anubis!" he said with a wicked laugh.

"Yes, I knew I _could have_ but I didn't actually need to know I _did_!"

He gave another one of his family's trademarked evil grins before turing around and slowly hobbling over to sit by one of the date palms there in the oasis. He grabbed a few dates and popped them in his mouth before motioning her over to sit beside him.

"Now that our untraditional, traditional greeting is out of the way what questions would you like me to answer, Setia?"

"Why are you all such freaks?" Setia asked with a grin as she flopped down a few feet in front of him.

"Don't get cheeky Setia. I'm asking truthfully and honestly. I expect you do the same," he replied sternly with enough force behind his words to show that playtime was over. Setia sat up straighter at his tone, folding her legs beneath her so that she was kneeling respectfully before the seated elder as Fayruz had taught her.

"Forgive my rude behavior my Lord _Raymond_," she said with a small smile and bow in his direction, "however, what I asked still stands.... Why is everyone the way they are? Why must Ammar torture himself as he does? And why do I know so many of you in my own time?"

"....What that's it? And here I was still expecting a torrent of questions!" he said with a smile after a long pause. He laughed a little when Setia remained quiet before continuing.

"To the first, we are as we must be. I know that is still a frustratingly unhelpful answer but thats the way it is. My creator told me what I was to be and what to create just as his creator told him. It is a cycle, just as things are in _all_ life. I may have come out of the blackness that was the chaos of the pre-world but then so to did the Greeks! In nearly every culture there is a darkness that predates this world.

"From that darkness rises life that I didn't put there. How could I if I did not yet existed myself? The high gods and goddesses of this world are all related in that we've all had the same creator that made us rise from the darkness. That same creator also taught us to create and what must be.

"Which in turn somewhat answers the question of my grandson Seth. Who you know as your Uncle Ammar.... He is the Memory for his people _and yours_. What he sees is the way things must for the people of this time so that your own can exist as they do. There is a Memory in place for each culture, not just for the aid of their people in this time but for the betterment of future people. Can you imagine what your time would be like if history did not go as it has?

"Not just the world without the Egyptians but without the Greek, Hindu _and_ Shinto? The Hindu and Shinto both have a Memory in place that is strong enough to keep the people with them clear into your time and possibly beyond! Seth and the others are the collective memory of their respective people but the Memory of every culture in your time. The Memory remembers for the people and reminds them. It is when the people begin to forget their heritage and past lessons that the culture dies.

"No matter how hard Seth tries he will fail to keep our people in remembrance of us. Though I do not mind it too much that my dear Egyptians will forget us. I will be sad to let them go their own way but at the same time I'm glad that it will come to pass. It will give my children and I the chance to be ourselves.... No longer bound to what the people believe we are because they no longer believe that we _are_, that we exist.

"...What was the third? Oh yes, you know a number of my family because you are free too just as they are free to know you. Especially in your time where they are no longer bound to the people of Egypt. You will come to know a number of others also. Not just of my own children but those of other cultures too, both in this time and in your own....." he finished with a sigh and leaned back against the tree before reaching up for another handful of dates. Setia didn't move, she simply stared at her grandfather's closest friend. She shook her head slightly as if just coming out of a daze and looked down at her folded hand in her lap before tuning her attention back to him.

"What's this? No more questions Little'n?" he asked through a mouthful of dates.

"A few.... Just give me a second to absorb what you've just confused me with," Setia answered with a small smile. Ra laughed lightly as he nodded his understanding.

"What spooked Nephthys? What did I do to make her run and get Anubis?" she finally asked after while.

"Seti daughter of Seth, the vile god that is chaos embodied, claiming direct relation to Kabechet the quiet daughter of Anubis, who is believed to be a son of Osiris..... Do you see what 'spooked' her? Or did I forget something?"

"But I was with them all day the day before! That dog of hers saw that I–"

"Jahi watched you influence Kabechet to buy a certain slave among other things that Jahi took as bad influence. Jahi is also Ammit so be careful."

"Yeah so I got her to buy the smallest child there but I only meant–"

"Seth and I both know that you only had good intentions and you have been kind to _both _children. But it still stands that they see Anippe as a child you place there for a reason, more that likely a bad one simply because you, I say yet again, are seen the daughter of Seth."

"But I'm not! Its just this stupid hair dye and it'll grow out in a little while!"

"But you _are _to them, at least you are right now. And you will remain so even when the dye grows out. Which is why I'm going to give you this," he snapped his gnarled fingers and she reached up to the sudden weight around her neck to find a long necklace wrapped there. It was a thin blue rope with black and blue green beads knotted on. Five silver vials about an inch long hung from one of the strands wrapped around her neck, each one was inscribed with a seal. A closer look showed that the seals were the Eye of Ra.

"They're going to say I stole this if they believe me to be as bad as you say...."

"Not when I deliver you back myself. Only I can pass out those vials and they can only be given, never stolen or taken. My blood is in those–"

"What! That disgusting! I'm not gonn–"

"You will if you know what's good for you! It will protect and aid you. None will dare to harm you when you are under _my_ protection! Nor will they take it from you, only you can willing remove it from yourself, none can force you to remove it. And if you only remember one thing from this little talk of ours remember this. If you ever have need to contact any of us, one drop in water or flame will enable you to speak with us. Simply say the name of who you wish to speak with."

"Kay... But does it have to be blood? I mean come on! That's nasty!"

"It isn't blood like that in your veins. Yours is life blood in that it is to keep your own life and eventually your children's alive. Mine is for everyone and everything in the whole of Egypt. It is closer to the color of amber like that of the trees along the Nile than it is to the color of yours. My blood is truly_ life_ blood."

"Its still gross," Setia growled out under her breath. Ra only sighed in reply.

"Help me up child, its time we return, they should be serving lunch about now."

"Kay but one last question... Why am I getting so many lectures?"

"Next time you're here everything will have already been explained which means you can enjoy your next trip," he answered with a laugh. Setia laughed also as she helped her grandfather's friend to his feet. He held on to her forearm until he'd steady himself before hobbling back towards the direction that they had come from. Setia looked up just in time to see the dark hallway come up around them then disappear in the next step. They had come out in to the main entryway where it looked as if nearly every god and goddess of Egypt had collected together there in a wide circle around the yard. There were shouts and yells coming from every direction as the other gods and goddesses egged on the two in the center of the circle. Which happened to be Anubis and Horus who were ready to tear one another apart. The only thing stopping them from doing so was the fact that Isis held back Horus and Nephthys held Anubis. Seth was there as well though he was trying to pry Nephthys off of Anubis.

"ENOUGH!" Ra roared out causing instant silence. Everyone turned to him, the circle breaking to let Ra through. Isis and Nephthys both let go only to watch Anubis deck Horus the instant they let go, which threw Seth into a fit of laughter.

"Anubis help your brother up," Ra commanded, Anubis paused before complying.

"The rest of you are dismissed. Horus, Anubis, what is the meaning of this?" Ra growled out.

"It is nothing my Lor–"

"Do not lie to me Horus. You are Justice in my place while I am gone from Earth! You should not be acting this way!"

"He made an accusation and I lost my temper that was already thinned," Anubis answered with a utterly malevolent glare in Setia's direction. Setia shrunk back behind Ra and began to fiddle with the necklace he'd given her, though she didn't break eye contact with Anubis as she did so. Their staring contest continued until Ra slapped Anubis up side the head.

"You leave my granddaughter alone, Boy," Ra said with a stern look at Anubis, "that goes for you as well Horus! I did not let Seth create her for either of you to harm her. Yes,I gave Seth my permission Isis, do not interrupt. She is Seti the_ God _of the Desert.... Which is actually why I'm here... Seth, why is my new Desert God a girl exactly?"

"I blunder your instructions Grandfather, forgive me."

"I cannot for we both know you did it on purpose.... Osiris asks that you forgive him for trying to kill her."

"HE WHAT!" Seth roared.

"You tried to kill his son, he returned the favor and because you did not succeed nether did he. Though he did not on purpose. I will have none harm my little Set," Ra said as he turned and place a hand on Setia's shoulder to propel her forward towards the others. Setia sighed as she went, yet again, to straighten herself as she stumbled.

"Why are you replacing Seth?" Nephthys asked as she stepped up to Ra.

"Stop that smiling Isis... To answer your question Nephthys, I am not. He is still the God of Chaos and Destruction among other things however his temperament tends to makes the desert unruly. The girl was named Seti to keep from confusing the people though at the time she was named so because I was lead to believe she was a boy. A girl Seti is going to cause problems.... Oh well!" Ra laughed out before raising a foot and disappearing within the next step.

"Has he always been... strange?" Setia asked Seth to break the silence that came after Ra had left, "I mean he has for as long as I can remember but–"

"He's been senile for as long as I can remember also," Seth answered with another of his grins, "Get your things, its time to leave."

"But I thought I wasn't leaving until tomorrow!"

"She is to remain here, Seth–" Horus began.

"That maybe Nephew. However, she cannot become the Goddess of the Desert by being trapped under your watchful eye," Seth growled as he took hold of Setia's forearm and propelled her towards Nephthys' family quarters. Anubis stopped him going with her however, while Nephthys stepped up beside and a little in front of her to lead the way back to their rooms. When she could see her bedroom door Setia ran past Nephthys and into her room closing the door behind her. She leaned back against it to catch her breath and steady her nerves. She looked around the room trying to think of what she needed or could take with her. After a while she decided that she'd not take any of it save for the necklace Ra had given her. All she'd really been given were clothes, shoes and other things of that ilk. Things that she couldn't wear in her own time. She laughed softly to herself before turning back to the door to head out into the hall. She walked out and into Kabechet and Anippe.

"Sorry Dai Dai, Annie. You come to see me off?"

"Do you have to go?" Dai Dai asked wringing her hands in front of her just as Nephthys had earlier that day.

"I don't want to leave either but I shouldn't be gone long," Setia said as she turned down the hall to head back to where Seth was waiting, "tell you what though I'll bring you both something back, okay?"

"What? What will you bring us?" Dai Dai asked as she tried to keep pace with Setia's long strides.

"You'll just have to what and see," Setia said as she stopped and turned back to pick up Annie who wasn't keeping up on her shorter legs. Setia took hold of one of Dai Dai's hands and spun her round and round as they walked. All three were laughing by the time they walked back into the entryway where the others were still waiting. Anubis wasn't happy to see Setia with his daughter again and he turned to glare at his mother like it was her fault. Nephthys in turn looked surprised that Kabechet and Anippe were with Setia. She quickly walked over to take them from Setia.

"Where are your things!" Seth barked out.

"There is nothing that I need to take with me, nor even be able to use, Lord Seth," Setia replied, ignoring the insult in his voice.

"Which needs to be discuss, Seth," Thoth cut in as he walked up to stand between Setia and Seth, "the girl needs clothes! How long has she gone with so few of her own personal belongings–"

"Lord Thoth, I've only been here in this city all of what? Ten days? For most of which I was unconscious, I've not needed–" Setia began.

"Did you not bring anything thing with you from where you lived before coming to the city?" Nephthys asked.

"I've nothing in my life that I could use here that would be acceptable in your–"

"And how is that? What could you possible have that we do not!" Isis demanded.

"You know Isis, you really are nothing like what the people are made to believe... To answer your question, I've not lived long in your world! There are things from mine that if I was to bring them with me could shatter your world as if it was made of glass! And will you all stop cutting me off, not to mention stop with the manhandling too! No, Isis! Don't you dare try and interrupt me again! You're gods for heavens sakes! And Kabechet and Anippe are better behaved then the rest of you idiots! If you lot want my respect then give me yours in turn!" Setia finished her piece and crossed her arms over her chest. In the silence that reined after her rant Setia realized what she'd done and said but managed to keep her face schooled and without emotion.

"Shall we Seti?" Seth asked politely as he waved a hand towards the gate. He placed his other hand against the small of her back to turn and lead her out. The shock of Seth's reaction was greater then that of what Setia said and demanded. If the gasps and dropped jaws at his sudden change in behavior were anything to go by. Seth lead Setia out into the city before taking hold of her hand and with the next step appearing in the courtyard of his home. He dropped her hand only to turn and hug her.

"You did very well Setia," he said with a kind smile, altogether different from his usual malevolent ones, as he let her go, "let's get you home. I'm sure you need a breather from all this for a bit."

Setia nodded in reply before smiling back at him. Ark appeared beside them and Seth snapped his fingers leaving Setia to watch in awe as Ark shrunk and change to that of a pup a few months old.

"Why a dog?"

"Her kind don't exist in the future... At least not to the public's knowledge. I've aged her so that it will be more believable that you found her abandoned on the dunes," with another snap of his fingers Setia found herself in the clothes she'd worn the day she fell.

"Shouldn't these be covered in blood? And do you really have to snap your fingers?"

"They changed as you were falling through the sand. As to the snapping... it's just courtesy to give you a warning before I change something on your person. As to your two unspoken questions.... Osiris trying to kill you was the excuse used to explain why you we're found half died in the Throne room. And no, you aren't going to learn to be the Goddess of the Desert. Because, one, your a human and you couldn't do anything anyway. And two, a little know fact about nature is that if you just let it be it does its own thing. Not that the Nile goddesses and gods don't try and control their element. When the unexpected happens as it often does in nature they say that they meant to cause that disaster so that none know that they lost control."

"Or they blame you for it, right?"

"Yes that too," he answered with a grin, "Ark time to take her home, the others are on their way. They know we're still here."

With that said everything disappeared. It took a moment for Setia to realize that she and Ark were the one that had vanished, not the other way around for they found themselves in the little valley there between the dunes. Setia turned to see Ammar still standing there atop the dune. She picked up Ark and ran up the dune as fast as she could to hug him.

"Thank you, Uncle!"

"I fogot to say hide the necklace before you left kiddo," he laughed out as he put an arm around her shoulders and led her back towards the temple complex. Setia stuffed it under her shirt as they crested the next dune that overlooked the temple.

"I've found her, Hector!" Ammar called out as he waved down to her father and the others there. Her father's sigh of relief could be clearly seen from where they where on the dunes.

"Setia! I thought I told you to stay where you could be seen!" Dr. Ivans yelled up to them as they walked down the dune.

"But look what I found abandoned in the middle of the dunes!" Setia yelled back as she hoisted Ark up above her head. Ark let out a cry of her own as she found her all four of her now tiny paws touching the sky.

"Your scaring it, sweetheart," Dr. Ivans commented as he took Ark from Setia. He turned Ark over holding her under her belly instead of by her back as Setia had done.

"You can't just pick up a wild animal off the dunes... Even if it is just a pup."

"I found the carcass of the mother and the other pups while I was looking for Setia and look how skinny the poor thing is," Ammar commented as he took Ark from Dr. Ivans, "do you really want to leave it here to die?"

"What was the mother? You know the wild life around here better than anyone. I can't tell what the pup is..." Dr. Ivans said as he scratched behind Ark's ears.

"What was left looked to be that of a jackal.... The pup is young enough that it can't have learning anything dangerous from the mother," Ammar handed Ark back to Setia with a smile and wink to her. Setia smiled as she set Ark on her shoulder like a parrot. Ark began to make little growls and yipping sounds as she tried to balance there.

"Setia, don't tor–"

"Don't worry Father, she's small enough to stand there. She'll be fine," Setia cut in as she patted Ark sharply on the top of her head. Her father sighed and shook his head as he and Ammar followed Setia into the temple. Setia spent the rest of the day teasing Ark; finding and busting open the closed doorways that connected the rooms she'd been in before the were sealed; napping in the bedroom Nephthys' had appointed her; choking on dust; finding and exploring Dai Dai's, Nephthys' and Anubis' rooms then anyone else's she could find which was only Horus' oddly enough; making mental notes to speak with Horus about his mother's refusal to let go of her little boy given that his name was inscribed on everything in his room including some of his clothes _and _childhood toys that should not be in the room of a possibly twenty something year old man; then she locked Ark in a storage room only to run from her when Ark squeezed through a hole in the wall; choked on dust again; went back to Anubis' room and took pictures of it before rearrange everything and borrowing a leather armband or two of his; which lead her to go through Horus' room again also where she took all of his toy animals and stuffed them under the bed after she picked her favorite to keep for herself.

The last thing she did was hunt through every room and hall to find the Throne room that Seth had told her she'd fallen into. Find it she did but only after she busted through four side doors because the main doors were too heavy. She went back into the outer hall and it was there that Ammar, her father with a number of the others on the expedition team found her. Dr. Ivans wasn't happy about it either.

"What are you doing going through the rooms and courtyards Setia!"

"I only messed one room Dad! Here, look I took a panoramic picture of the room before I messed with anything. You can put it all back the way it was. I didn't touch anything with my hands either! I got a pair of gloves in my back pocket just as you taught me. I didn't take nothing either," Setia insisted, holding out her camera and thankful that the things she _had_taken were under her clothes.

"If I show you the Throne room will you forget that you're mad at me?"

"The what?"

"This way, I'll show you!" Setia led them all back through the side doors she'd opened and in to the massive room. She walked out to stand in the middle of the room.

"Forgive me?" she asked as she spun to face her father. He didn't answer as he looked around the room in awe.

"Marco, Alex, get more lights pronto. Ahmed, Jessic, go get as many of the team thats available to help..." Dr. Ivans laughed softly to himself, "Setia, sweetheart do you realize what you've found?"

"Noooo.... What?"

"Look at it all! Everything is perfectly intact.... All the plaster, the paint, the _gold.... _All here, all untouched.... The last place found this untouched and intact like this was the tomb of King Tut! And this room is even more intact then that one!" Dr. Ivans burst out laughing like a child given free rein in a candy store. Ammar laughed to himself as well but for different reasons before regaining his senses.

"Setia head out to the entrance. I called Fayruz and your mother a few hours ago to come and get you–" Ammar said turning to her.

"What! No way! I'm staying here!"

"No, no your not, kiddo. You're not going to camp out here with us. You were only going to come out for the day. You have classes Setia–" Dr. Ivans started to say now that he'd calmed down and was thinking clearly again at least some what.

"I'm home schooled and Fayruz is my instructor! I can do classes lat–"

"No, you're going home. They should be here soon. They're bring dinner with the rest of the fresh camping gear. You can eat with us but then you're going home, sweetheart. No arguing."

"Finnnneeee," Setia growled out as she stomped her way back to the entryway they were using.


	6. Homecoming and Plans Made

**AN: Sorry it's been a while since my last update but I'm moving from Utah to Florida so don't kill me if the next one is late too.**

Also I've gotten a couple emails and a review saying that the Hamster Land and spring boarding cats part was confusing. Forgive me for committing one of the cardinal sins you should not do as writer in thinking and therefore writing about a game that I believed people knew or might know. I reworked that section so hopefully others may now understand it. However if you just want to get on with this chapter here's a short explanation. **Setia and Ra are playing a word game that Ra and Setia's grandfather, also named Hector (who Ra calls Tor) play. Setia immediately jumps into it when she sees and realizes who Ra is. The game is an improvising word game where one accuses another of something ridiculous and the other players take the line their given and spin it off from there. First to laugh is out till only one remains. **Again, sorry and....

**PLEASE REVIEW!!! **All opinions welcome. Yes, even the mean nasty ones. And yes I know I can be long-winded in my explanations and author's notes so no nasty reviews about that. Now on with...

Chapter Six

Ark's one minute precognition wasn't doing her much good as she and Setia waited in the main entryway for Indah and Fayruz. Truth be told it was helping Setia a great deal more in teaching her to act even more impulsively. Yet all the same, Setia had only caught Ark four times out of her many attempts when they arrived. Setia didn't mind however for her last catch and act of torture was she felt was her best. It was also one that proved to be impossible for Ark to escape from as she had with Setia's other attempts like when she was locked in the storage room and broke out through the wall.

"What are you doing!"

"Look it!" Setia yelled out happily, waving Ark above her head as ran up to her mother and Fayruz.

"Setia give me that! You know better then to play with the artifacts– Gahahhh! Its moving!" Indah cried out as she withdrew her hand and back away from her daughter.

"Setia..." Fayruz sighed as she took Ark away.

"I used the stuff I found in one of the first aid kits."

"We can see that... What's that smell?" Fayruz asked as she tried to untie Ark.

"Its peppermint from the muscle relieve stuff Dad keeps in his bag. I used it as a replacement for the emba–"

"Setia untie the poor thing right now! What have I told you!" Indah glared at Setia.

"No practicing mummification on live things. Yeah, I know."

"No practicing whatsoever!" Indah took Ark from Fayruz and pulled on one piece of bandage near Ark's back left paw. The shock was clear on both Setia's and Fayruz's faces as the bandages all unraveled at once.

"Where did you learn that Mom!"

"After years with both you and your father–"

"What! Dad can do it but I–"

"No he can't! The last time he wrapped anything up was you when you were four!"

"And I paid for it for an entire year. Setia, I told you to leave that thing alone," Dr. Ivans called out as he walked toward them. He leaned over and kissed his wife on the cheek as he took Ark out of her hands.

"Please get her out of here, Love. She's been breaking all the rules! Breaking one or two of the rules at a dig is fine. But she's broken open doorways, rearranged rooms, touched and moved artifacts. Indah–" he begged his wife.

"We just got here. Its a long trip, we're going to be here a while. Fayruz and I decided to do welcome home party here. And will you stop! Don't think kissing me is going to give you any leeway!"

"Indah please–"

"Deal with it," Indah growled at her husband.

Fayruz smiled at Setia as she nodded her head towards the entrance. Setia sighed, rolling her eyes as she followed Fayruz out and they both sat down against the temple wall. Ark flopped down on the other side of Fayruz, well out of Setia's reach. Ark was seriously thinking of taking a big, monstrously savage bite out of Seth when she returned to her normal size for giving Setia an advantage to bully her.

"I'll never get used to cars. No space," Fayruz said as stretched her legs out in front of her.

"This is looking out to be one of the many lecture speeches and Ra promised I'd not have to hear anymore."

Fayruz stared at Setia a moment before she began to laugh.

"I swear that old fool forgets to tell me on purpose," Fayruz laughed out.

"Ra what–"

"Not Ra, Ammar... My husband didn't tell me you were coming back from your first trip today," she smiled as she took one of Setia's hands in her own, "Anyway... Mummifying Ark is the last you'll do to her. You'll need a guard that _wants_ to protect you. Not one that will aid your tormentor. Don't give me that look. You're going to need all the help you can get.... Oh I can't wait for your next trip! You'll truly live up to the name Ammar gave you, my dear Little'n of Chaos!" Fayruz laughed as she squeezed Setia's hand. Fayruz continued to laugh and murmur quietly to herself all the while Setia watched her like she was a crazy person about to go off the deep end.

"Okay... Who are you and where did the sensible Fayruz go or hey, I'll even take Nephthys and her coldness right now," Setia said as she scooted a foot or so away. Fayruz only laughed harder.

"Sorry Little'n. I can't tel–"

"Yes! I know already. No one can tell me noth'n! I _know_!"

"Yes.... Well here's my one piece–"

"No, no more lectures! Mah head's gonna go BAHBOOM!" Setia smacked her hands against her forehead then threw them out for emphasize.

"We're younger than you think," Fayruz rushed out.

"GAH! NO! KAHBOO– Wait, what?" Setia did the motions of her head exploding again but stopped halfway as she turned to look at Fayruz.

"It could be said that we've the bodies everyone dreams of having... Which is logical considering that we more or less exist in dreams, especially now days. However, be nice to my son and nephew," Fayruz said, shaking a finger at Setia like one would to a naughty child, "mentally Horus is only thirteen or fourteen yet he has the body of someone in their twenties or possibly even thirties. Anubis is about the same. No, I take that back. He's closer to your age–"

"You're kidding right?"

"No. Egypt is still quite young then. The only one over forty was Ra. I, myself am a proud twenty-five years–"

"That does not work nor make any sense, Fayruz," Setia said as glared at the older woman.

"We're gods, Little'n. We don't have to make sense. Ra creates us as the people need us because he must... Then we age from there. Out of our entire history, excluding my nephew and granddaughter, name a god or goddess who has their childhood written out or is even mentioned as a child more then once if at all? We are what the people believe us to be. And they do not believe in many child gods, Little'n.

"We created the servants there in the temple so that we can act as ourselves outside of the peoples' eye. You will be the only human to enter our home there. Not even the priests and priestesses are aloud into that... this temple." Fayruz said with a wave of her hand behind her at building they were leaning against.

"Yay happy joy!" Setia growled out, "I get a backseat, inside look at why gods are psycho and pick on mortals so much! Wonderful! NO! No more, please, really I can't take anymore. Though that tidbit does explain why you're all bipolar!

"Seth is all adult like the Ammar I know one minute then he's all acting almost like a nineteen, twenty year old and you! You were acting the proper motherly-grandmotherly goddess lady but then,_ then_ you ran and tattled on me to y_our son_. Way to show you're the one in control, the eldest high power in the family! You could have told me to stop yourself you know! Not to mention it totally explains the 'lets crowd into the hallways and watch the two dudes fight'n bash each others heads like we're all in high school!' Are you all teenage freak jobs with hormonal overloads issues!"

"No, only half of us are in their teens, more or less... Seth, myself and a number of others are in our late twenties early thirties. Look at your own father, Little'n. He's never really grown up either," Fayruz smiled at Setia as she took her hand and led her back inside. Ammar was there now and was watching Indah and Dr. Ivans continued argument with amusement.

"Ammar, my love. Will you help me get everyone to help pull things together for dinner?" Fayruz asked him as walked up to him and pinched rather hard one the arm as she jerked her head in Setia's direction. He winched before he smiled and kissed her cheek. Fayruz pulled the car keys from her pocket to hand to him but Indah was the one to to call the rest of the team in to help.

"The things we brought for dinner are still in the car! There is enough for ONLY EIGHTEEN people to have SECONDS if they HELP get tables together OUTSIDE!" Indah cried out as she turned away from her husband, leaving him mid-sentence. By the time she'd finished yelling the twenty-one people of the expedition team, twelve security personal and fifteen other random aids were scrambling to get everything together and cleared for table space. Fayruz and a few of the other wives of the expedition team had begun cooking for the Ivans family's return the day before they arrived back in Egypt. So there was more then enough food for everyone despite Indah's remark and large homecoming party was soon underway.

"You'd think we were gone forever by the way they all act," Setia said as she laughed with her father while they watched Ammar and some of the other men play football across the sand dunes sometime later. They laughed harder as they watch the game take its players through the small tent city that had been pitched outside the temple the day of the temple's discovery to house those that would help keep potential looters away. Unfortunately for the majority of the expedition team, it was Ammar's tent that was pummeled. The others scattered as Ammar began to curse, chase and throw punches at anyone foolish enough to get to close as they tried to apologize.

"Thank Fayruz, your mother and the others for driving everything out here. The original plan had been for the party to be after we'd gotten back from the dig site. However, I think your mother was tired of having this messy lot in the house once a year, every year. Still, it was a long drive so–"

"I'll thank them, don't worry," Setia said with a smile as she hugged her father. She wandered through what was mostly makeshift tables to where her mother, Fayruz and the majority of the other women were. She flopped down on the sand next to her mother, and leaned her head against her mother's shoulder.

"Tired, Dear?" Indah asked as she reached up to pat Setia on the head.

"Getting there... It's been a long couple of days–I mean–"

"It's alright, Sweetheart. I know what you mean, I don't like the flights or travel either."

Setia let out the breath she was holding, relieved that her mother had made her own conclusions about her potential slip up. Setia drifted in and out as she listened to those around her while she rested against her mother's side. The party came to an end as the sun set down behind the dunes. Setia got up to help clean with the others. She said good bye to her father, Ammar and the others as she climbed in to the backseat of a van with her mother. She feel asleep there wedged between her mother and one of the wives of of someone on expedition team, dreaming of her next trip.

––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

Setia woke up in her own room, wondering how her mother and Fayruz could have gotten her there on their own. She got up and showered before heading downstairs for breakfast. She walked downstairs to find her mother and Fayruz on the front steps with man she'd never met before.

"Good morning Little'n! This is my older brother, Qasim," Fayruz said with a smile as she set a hand on the man's shoulder, "He's dropped in for a surprise visit from England. Though he's says Ammar knew he was coming."

"Stop glaring at me. He promised to let me surprise you."

"That maybe but none of the neighbors know you and I don't need rumors starting so your staying out here–" Indah started.

"I came in last night–"

"Which was bad enough but it was only to carry Setia because she wouldn't wake so... Thank you but you stay out here. Old Ariella's watching as it is and she spreads rumors fast than there are things to make rumors about. I'm sorry but this is my house and my husband is not here. If it was Fayruz's home–" Indah said with a mock smile and a wave to the old woman that lived across from them.

"I understand, I am not a member of your family there for you cannot let me in without your husband home."

They all sat there for sometime, in the shade of the porch, listening to Fayruz and Qasim talk about their childhood. All while nodding and smiling at Ariella as she watched them from behind her curtains. Setia had gone in to get more drinks when Ammar and Dr. Ivans pulled into the driveway.

"Never mind, Sweetheart! Just bring the drinks into the dining room," Indah called out as they all walked into house.

"You were to come out to the excavation site, not to the house, Qasim. Because of you, we had to come back to town early! We weren't due to come back for four days, my brother! " Ammar said with a smile as he smacked his brother-in-law on the shoulder.

"I came to see my little sister, not you," Qasim answered as he returned Ammar's hit with a smile of his own, "It was easier this way, I don't believe I could have found the dig site. I've not been back to Egypt since I was in my teens–"

"You got lost finding the house didn't you," Fayruz accused with cruel smile.

"Yes," he replied as he hung his head before letting out a laugh. They were all seated in the dining room now and Setia had helped Indah serve lunch.

"What do you do in England, Qasim?" Dr. Ivans asked

"I own a home there close to Cambridge where I one of ancient languages professors, but I also own a home in Greece. Ammar has told me that you've found a few things where they shouldn't be."

"That information was not to be released..." Dr. Ivans said with a dark look over at Ammar.

"He's one of the leading experts in ancient languages just as you are so... between the two of you... well..."

"I'm not your wife, I'm not going to beat you for your lack of faith in me," Dr. Ivans growled out, a scowl on his face. Everyone laughed at his remark as Ammar threw up his hands in defense.

"You've been working on some of the hieroglyphs and markings since before you left for the states and then we found the laptop with its own markings that we can't even begin to deciph–"

"We agreed not to call it a laptop because _it can't_ be a laptop!"

"May I see it?" Qasim asked Dr. Ivans

"Its still on site," Ammar replied, "We'll take you out tomorrow."

"Can I–" Setia began to ask but was cut off by a chorus of no's from all save for Fayruz's brother.

"You have lessons to finish, Little'n," Fayruz said with a small smile.

"And you've caused enough damages to deserve a grounding from the next few trips," Dr. Ivans said with a glare towards his daughter.

"But I thought my showing you the throne room cleared me–"

"No, Setia."

Setia sighed and nodded as she gave in, knowing that there was no arguing with her father when he spoke with that harsh of tone. After they had finished eating, the men moved into the sitting room while her mother and Fayruz moved into the kitchen. Setia followed them into the kitchen before declaring that she would go to her room instead. Setia locked herself into her room and leaned against the door.

"What to do?" she murmured softly to herself before walking over to her desk to pull out a notepad and a pencil. She began to make a list of pranks to pull off on Ark which lead to a list of things to do to Seth, then a list for Anubis, Horus and the rest. Setia stopped when she realized that she'd run out of paper in her small fifty page notebook and that two whole hours had gone by. If she did use all of these prank ideas she had then Fayruz was right... Her next trip to ancient Egypt would be spectacular!


End file.
